In pictures: China's rescue push

More than 22,000 people are now known to have died in the powerful earthquake which hit China's Sichuan province on Monday. China says this figure could rise to 50,000 in the next few days.

Almost five million people have been left homeless by the quake - including many vulnerable people.

Aid workers occasionally take a break from the exhausting rescue effort.

Continuing aftershocks have hampered attempts to deliver aid, and many affected areas are no longer accessible by road.

Rescuers have to find other ways to reach those in need.

Tens of thousands of Chinese troops have been bringing aid to affected areas and attempting to rescue the thousands of people still believed to be trapped.

President Hu Jintao visited the disaster area on Friday and told rescue workers the challenge was still severe, the task arduous and that time was pressing.

Foreign rescue workers from Russia, South Korea and Singapore have started to arrive in the area as well as a team from Japan with trained rescue dogs.

A Red Cross team from Taiwan, which China considers to be part of its territory, has also been dispatched to China's Sichuan province.

Meanwhile people across China have been collecting money for victims of the quake, which state media reports has damaged more than four million homes.

Days after the quake, some people have still been found alive, including Li Guichuan in Beichuan County, who endured 70 hours under rubble.

But chances are fading for the thousands of people still missing, many of them children trapped under collapsed schools. Their relatives face an agonising wait for news.

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