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Wen to spend New Year Eve in Wenchuan
By Fu Jing and Wang Jianfen (Chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-01-25 11:41

Premier Wen Jiabao is expected to spend the Lunar New Year Eve in Wenchuan of Sichuan province, the most severely devastated area in the May 12 earthquake that killed nearly 70,000 people.

Braving the freezing temperature, Wen expressed condolences and solidarity to hospital staff and police in Deyang, another hard-hit area, Sunday morning and would visit the severely-damaged Oriental Turbine Factory in Mianzhu.

After lunch, Wen is scheduled to visit Wenchuan where he would celebrate the Lunar New Year Eve with quake survivors.

Wen arrived in Beichuan on Saturday, his first stop of the year-end trip to the Chinese southwestern province of Sichuan.

Chinese people all over the world will usher in the triditional Spring Festival, or the Lunar New Year, which is the Year of the Ox, on Monday, January 26, 2009.