Sydney (Platts)--13May2008

China has closed several major highways and expressways in southwestern
Sichuan and northwestern Shaanxi provinces, after Monday's strong earthquake
caused landslides, Xinhua news agency said Tuesday.
The death toll from the earthquake is nearly 10,000 in Sichuan alone,
local media said early-Tuesday.
An expressway, which links Chengdu and Mianyang cities in Sichuan hav been
closed to traffic since 3:30 pm (0730 GMT) on Monday, about an hour after the
earthquake.
Since 8 pm Monday, conditions of two highways running through Wenchuan
county in Tibetan-Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Aba, in Sichuan, remained
unknown due to communication failure, Xinhua said. Parts of national and
provincial highways through Aba were also closed.
The earthquake measuring 7.8 occurred at around 2:30 pm Monday, striking
93 km (58 miles) from Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province in southwest
China. Tremors could be felt across the nation including Beijing and Shanghai,
where thousands of people were evacuated from buildings.
The earthquake was China's worst in 30 years, the Financial Times said
Tuesday.
--Joanna Lim, joanna_lim@platts.com