Survivors of Monday's earthquake are beginning to make the long journey from their devastated towns and villages to first-aid and emergency-relief stations in the area. Many making the trip are bruised and bandaged.

Two pregnant women - in their ninth month of pregnancy - made such a trup too.

Ms Yang Xin (left), 23, and Ms Chen Mei, 36, had hitchhiked and walked with their husbands for several kilometres when I met them on the outskirts of Shuimu township. They were bound for aid stations about 20km away.

They said the local hospital in Shuimu had been all but destroyed, and they were worried about catching an infection. So they decided to find their way to a relief station, although both women could give birth any day now.