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Chinese President Hu Jintao, top legislator Wu Bangguo, Premier Wen Jiabao, and other top leaders including Jia Qinglin, Li Changchun, Xi Jinping, He Guoqiang and Zhou Yongkang also stood in silence in the central government compound of Zhongnanhai in Beijing.
Across the country, air raid sirens, cars, trains and ship horns wailed in grief as the people fell silent.
Chinese bourses and commodities exchanges also suspended trading for three minutes in remembrance of the earthquake dead.
At the Tian'anmen square where the national flag flies at half post, thousands of people shouted "Brave and strong, China!" and "Brave and Strong, Wenchuan!" with some waving the national flags. Wenchuan county was the epicenter of the 8.0-magnitude quake.
The three-minute remembrance is part of three-day national mourning for those who died in the 8.0-magnitude earthquake. More than 32,000 people have been confirmed dead and the estimated death toll could top 50,000.
National flags will fly at half mast, public entertainments will be cancelled and the Olympic torch relay suspended during the three-day mourning period.
The students of senior 3 and their teachers at Beichuan Higher Middle School mourn for victims who died in the May-12 earthquake during a ceremony of resuing classes at a temporary school in quake-hit Mianyang city, southwest China's Sichuan Province.
More information in:http://www.tcmadvisory.com/2008/5-15/20085159373.html
May 19 Special Report
