MICHELE NORRIS, host:
With the search and rescue part of the earthquake relief effort in China over, the government there is turning its attention to the next phase. For one, it's scrambling to find work for the countless people whose offices and workplaces collapsed in the May 12th earthquake. The government will also attempt to build temporary housing for the millions now living in tents. In just a month, those refugee camps have become bustling towns in themselves.
NPR's Rob Gifford reports.
ROB GIFFORD: Blue tents line the dusty main road leading into the town of Mianjou(ph). Mianjou is almost uninhabitable now, so people have moved what they can - small shops, restaurants - to nearby refugee camps. But now, there are other companies from for away that are coming to them.
Mr. TIEN SHINGUA(ph): (Foreign language spoken)
GIFFORD: Tien Shingua addresses a crowd of women beside the road. He runs a clothing factory near Shanghai, and he's come to recruit some 3,000 people to work there, nearly a thousand miles to the east.
Mr. TIEN: (Foreign language spoken)
GIFFORD: It's a perfect fit. The workers have no work here now, and Tien says they'll get a higher salary near Shanghai. But he'll have to pay them less than he'd have to pay locals in the east of the country. Twenty-seven-year-old Mianjou native Ei Shaolan(ph) is lining up to sign her contract. She'll leave for Shanghai tonight.
Ms. EI SHAOLAN: (Foreign language spoken)
GIFFORD: I'm very happy, she says. There's no work here. We can rely on the government for some help, but in the end, we have to help ourselves. Right?
Unidentified Group: (Foreign language spoken)
GIFFORD: Standing beside the busy road, surrounded by the bustling camp, Mr. Tien leads the newly signed-up workers in a chant about how everyone will rebuild the country together.
Well, this is a very different kind of refugee camp, if you can even call it that. There are lines of people crowding around lists of possible employment in eastern China, Chinese reporters wanting to interview me about what I think about all this, and crowds of Chinese refugees taking photos of me on their cell phones as they line up to apply for jobs.
Besides the employment exchange, 37-year-old Wei Shanjong(ph) is stir-frying some vegetables in one of the many small food stores that have sprung up. Wei and his extended family of 10 people are living in a tent next door. They're only just getting by, but he says there is an extraordinary atmosphere within the camp.
Mr. WEI SHANJONG: (Foreign language spoken)
GIFFORD: It's amazing, he says. In the city, before the earthquake, we lived behind barred doors and double locks. Here, now, we're all helping each other and looking out for each other. But, he adds, it's still a matter of taking life one day at a time.
(Soundbite of electric saw)
GIFFORD: Behind him, a whole new city of prefabricated housing is going up. Wei and others nearby say they think within a few months, they may be able to move their families into one of the slightly more luxurious one-room pre-fab homes. It'll be better than tents, he says. But he adds he knows they could be living there for years, while the town of Mianjou is rebuilt. Rob Gifford, NPR News, Sichuan Province, China. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
