The May 12 magnitude 8.0 earthquake in the nation's southwest Sichuan province left nearly 88,000 people dead or missing, 375,000 injured, over five million homeless and up to 1.5 million people displaced.

"We are not laying much importance on commemorating the half year anniversary," Wang Shunong, an official with the China Red Cross who is helping people recover from the psychological impact of the earthquake, told AFP.

"We don't want to think about the disaster too much today. We want to avoid causing an overreaction among the people."

People in the quake zone remain in a state of shock and depression with victims struggling to cope with the loss of their loved ones, their homes and their jobs, she said.

Wang is working in Yinghua, a village in one of the worst hit areas where many people died and thousands of residents are now living in pre-fabricated homes.

The deadliest earthquake to strike China in over 30 years flattened entire cities and towns, while destroying schools, hospitals, homes, buildings and factories in nearly 50,000 villages similar to Yinghua.

It caused about 124 billion dollars in direct economic losses, while reconstruction costs could exceed 245 billion dollars and take many years.

"We are trying to get the quake victims to find their own ways, to rebuild their homes and increase their incomes," Han Guijin, the deputy head of Beichuan county, one of the worst hit areas of the quake, told AFP.

"This is why the government has not organised any half-year commemoration activities. We can wait until the one year anniversary."

The quake victims need to remain focused on getting back to their normal livelihoods and developing self-help strategies aimed at overcoming the devastation brought by the earthquake, he said.

China's state-controlled press also gave very little prominence to the six-month anniversary, with reports simply focusing on reconstruction work.

Throughout the quake zone, victims acknowledge the enormous effort of the government over the past six months but complain that aid has still not been enough and worry about corruption among local level officials.

"The government has done as much as they could do, people are grateful for this, (but) they also know that corruption is inevitable," said Wang Ke, 50, a store owner in Leigu township.

Reconstruction efforts are apparent throughout the quake zone, with piles of bricks, roof tiles, piping and other building materials stacked on roadsides as workers everywhere busy themselves with the task of rebuilding.

Gone are many of the thousands of tents set up in the weeks after the quake, now replaced by semi-permanent villages made of prefabricated homes that in some places house up to 20,000 people.

The government has so far budgeted 10 billion dollars in relief and rebuilding funds for the quake zone this year as part of an overall 146 billion dollar three-year reconstruction plan.

To confront the problems caused by tens of thousands of homes being destroyed, the government has pledged a 20,000 yuan (2,900 dollar) rebuilding subsidy plus a loan of an equal amount to each family that lost a home.

"Through its relief programmes the government has done an excellent job, meeting some of the basic needs of the people through its preliminary relief efforts," Khalid Malik, the top China-based UN official, told AFP.

"The key now is helping the affected population to begin to rebuild their lives... from all signs they are on their way, they have been moving quite quickly."

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