"Altitude sickness poses the biggest challenge for the rescuers," he said. Two soldiers suffered from pulmonary edema, or a build-up of fluid in their lungs, after they caught colds and were removed from the quake zone for treatment.
But the majority of the soldiers only had slight symptoms, as most of them were young and had previously participated in operations on plateaus, Wang said.
To cope with altitude sickness, most soldiers carry extra medicine as well as oxygen supplies, said Xie Weikuan, an officer with the PLA's General Logistics Department.
As of April 20, the department had supplied 5,000 doses of medicine, 100 oxygen concentrators and 145 oxygen tanks, he said.
Despite the difficulties of adjusting to the high altitude, no casualties had been reported among the soldiers and armed police, Wang said.
The PLA soldiers and armed police had also been engaged in tasks such as maintenance of hygiene and disease control, resettlement of people in the quake zone and traffic control and coordination, he added.
In order to ease the traffic pressure and guarantee the smooth transportation of relief materials, more than 1,600 soldiers from the Lanzhou Military Command had been designated to keep traffic flowing on the only road—the 820-km No.214 National Highway—to Yushu from Xining, capital city of Qinghai Province.
"The next step for the PLA and the PAPF is to help people in the quake zone restore their livelihoods and rebuild their homes, in addition to continuing the search for survivors and treating the injured," Huang said.
Lessons from the past
Tian said that the rescue team had learned a lot from the Wenchuan earthquake, including relief work organization, coordination and command, and logistical support.
On May 12, 2008, the earthquake in Wenchuan County in southwest China's Sichuan Province left nearly 90,000 people dead or missing.
Since then, the State Council and the Central Military Commission have worked on improving the ability of the nation's military to deal with non-traditional security threats such as natural disaster relief.
The PLA's General Staff Department have established special organs to deal with emergency response operations for natural disasters, and to build up stockpiles of emergency aid supplies.
Additionally, the department has established communication mechanism with more than 20 departments under the State Council, achieving effective interaction on planning between different departments.
On May 1, 2009, a plan for building non-conflict military capacity was established, clarifying the guiding principles, aims, scale and requirements of non-conflict military capacity building and forming eight nation-level professional emergency rescue troops with a total of 50,000 soldiers.
Servicemen and women with the PLA had also been ordered to receive regular emergency response training, Tian said.
"The armed forces have performed better and acted more quickly than they did during the Wenchuan earthquake relief," he said.
Transportation and communication had been restored within 24 hours after the quake, and electricity within 48 hours, with food and tent supplies, and transportation for the badly injured to nearby cities with better medical facilities within 72 hours, Tian said.
The Wenchuan earthquake also prompted the government to enhance efforts for disaster management on a large scale, mobilizing rescue teams, advancing studies on related technologies and stockpiling relief materials and equipment.
Following these lessons, the China Earthquake Administration adjusted its reaction plans, said Huang Jianfa, Director of the Disaster and Emergency Response Department of the administration.
In less than two years, the national rescue team has increased from 200 members to 500, while the professional rapid-response teams established in 27 provinces have boosted the total number of relief workers nationwide from 3,000 at the time of the Wenchuan earthquake, to 5,000 today.
"We have equipped our teams with better technologies and facilities, too," said Huang.
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