Chinese Premier Wen visits quake-hit Sichuan to extend new year greetings

The premier then went to the village square to attend the traditional Qiang new year's celebration. "I hope that all the Qiang people will be happy and healthy, and the Qiang culture will thrive forever," Wen told the villagers.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (R) cooks at a kitchen shared by several families at the prefabs in Yingxiu Township of Wenchuan County, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Jan. 25, 2009. Wen Jiabao came to the quake-hit counties of Beichuan, Deyang and Wenchuan in Sichuan Province on Jan. 24 and 25, celebrating the Spring Festival with local residents.(Xinhua/Yao Dawei)

He had dinner at the Beichuan Middle School and encouraged the students to work hard for the future. More than 1,000 of the school's 2,900 students and teachers died in the earthquake.

On Sunday morning, Wen visited new homes in Deyang City's Xinyu Village. He watched a lion dance and played table tennis with villagers.

Wen also visited medical workers at the Deyang City People's Hospital and extended televised greetings to police and firefighters in Sichuan.

At Dongfang Steam Turbine Works, a large state-owned enterprise, he urged employees to have confidence in Dongfang's development in spite of the quake destruction and global financial crisis.

Wen then visited Yingxiu Town in Wenchuan County, the epicenter of the quake. In a community of makeshift houses, Wen went into a kitchen shared by the Wu's and two other families and joined them in preparing dinner for the Spring Festival's Eve. He even cooked a dish of Hui Guo Rou (Sauteed sliced pork with pepper) for them.

The three families of belong to Tibetans, Qiang and Han nationalities. Wen had the dinner with them and exchanged new year's greetings with them.

"You will spend this Spring Festival in the prefabricated houses. By the next Spring Festival, you would surely have moved into new houses. We will speed up the reconstruction work so that all the quake-stricken areas will be even more beautiful than they used to be, and the people here will live a even better life," said Wen.