Bittersweet feeling as quake children resume school

ZUNDAO, China (Reuters) - Children returned to school in some of China's worst quake-hit districts on Wednesday as the country struggled to put normality back into the lives of survivors nine days after the tragedy stuck.

In just one day and using prefabricated building materials, local authorities hammered together a temporary school for children living around Zundao town, near the city of Mianzhu.

"It's good to start school as soon as possible to reduce the pressure on parents. Many of our children have had a bad fright and we're here to calm them down, to give them care and counselling if necessary," said one teacher, who declined to be named.

"We will have counsellors moving into the school, but I don't know how many."

Dozens of schools collapsed on May 12, killing thousands of children sitting at the desks at the time of the 7.9 magnitude quake.

Some of the grieving families took advantage of the return to school on Wednesday to hold small memorial services.

Holding framed photographs of their dead children, parents lined both sides of the driveway to Fuxin Primary School in the small town of Wufu.

More than 120 children died when the school collapsed, and on Wednesday, schoolbags and books, their pages flapping in the wind, were still strewn amongst the rubble.

In China, many families have only one child, due to the country's strict one-child policy introduced in the late 1970s when the government began to worry that resources could not keep up with the fast-growing population.