Wearing “I love China” T-shirts, they unload the injured from ambulances. Driving their Hondas and their Audis, they deliver water to the homeless.

The devastating earthquake in China has given birth to a phenomenon unseen before in the country: a volunteer army.

Thousands upon thousands of Chinese, horrified at the death and devastation wreaked by last week’s 7.9 magnitude quake, have raced to do what they can for the survivors.

The death toll is approaching 32,500 and is expected to hit 50,000 once the final tally is collected across this beautiful corner of mountains and steep valleys, where landslides have cut off dozens of hard-hit communities. Only two people were pulled out from under the ruins yesterday and one woman had to have her legs amputated.

Volunteer health workers from all over the country have become a vital part of the rescue work, assisting the People’s Liberation Army wherever they can. In the town of Beichuan they can be seen, noses covered with masks, spraying disinfectant over the ruins. Others wait on the edge of town to help exhausted refugees to trudge out of this valley of desolation.

One after another the volunteers repeat a favourite slogan: “If disaster strikes in one place, then people will come from eight places to help.”

Hu Yaxu, a 24-year-old music student from the Sichuan provincial capital, Chengdu, is working at the Pengzhou People’s Hospital. A special volunteer badge is pinned to a T-shirt printed with a map of China and the words “One China!!!”. Emerging after carrying the injured from the ambulance to the emergency room, he said: “I saw the disaster on television and I felt terrible. I had to come.”

A team of volunteers from Britain were moved by the same sentiment, but they got only as far as Hong Kong. The Chinese Government denied visas to the 10 specialists of International Rescue Corps, arguing that it lacked the resources to manage their work.

“It is frustrating,” said Willie McMartin, director of the charity. “When you are handed a sheet of paper from the Chinese Government requesting specialist equipment and you have it available at no cost to them in Hong Kong, and they will not let you in – it is just such a pity.”

In a village of wood-ear mushroom farmers, everyone is homeless. A convoy of cars, sleek sedans with tinted windows driven out from the city, draws to a halt. Well-dressed city dwellers emerge to hand out bottled water and biscuits to forlorn peasants who shove and push for the food.

One man in a Pajero said: “This disaster is at our door. We can’t just look on and say we feel bad about it. We have to do something real.”

He and his companions, mostly private businessmen, made contact on the internet and decided to do their bit. The roads towards the epicentre are clogged with such convoys.

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