Officials asked for the horns of cars, trains and ships and air raid sirens to sound as people fall silent at 2:28 p.m. (0628 GMT) - exactly one week after the quake splintered thousands of buildings and killed an estimated 50,000 people.
The Olympic torch relay - a potent symbol of national pride in the countdown to August's much anticipated Beijing games - also was suspended during the mourning period.
The national flag in Tiananmen Square, which is raised in a solemn ceremony every morning at dawn, fluttered at half staff. State television repeatedly broadcast the ceremony. Also to mark the mourning period, the mastheads of all newspapers were printed in black.
The mourning period begins as hope of finding more trapped survivors dwindled, and preventing hunger and disease among the homeless became more pressing.
As the second week of China's worst disaster in a generation started, the hunt for survivors in the rubble turned glum despite remarkable survival tales among thousands who were buried.
The steady run of rescue news flashed by the official Xinhua News Agency has slowed, with just three such rescues reported Sunday, including a woman in Yingxiu town who was reached by soldiers who dug a 5-yard (meter) tunnel through the wreckage of a flattened power station and had to amputate both her legs to set her free, after 150 hours.With more corpses discovered, the confirmed death toll rose to 32,476, the State Council, China's cabinet, reported. The injured numbered more than 220,000.
Many bodies lay by roadsides in body bags or wrapped in plastic sheeting, as authorities struggled to dig burial pits and crematoriums worked overtime.
It was the most extensive mourning period the government has ordered since the death 11 years ago of communist patriarch Deng Xiaoping, the architect of the free-market reforms that have brought many Chinese from poverty to moderate prosperity in a generation.
According to sina.com, a Chinese news portal, the government order said all Internet entertainment and game sections had to be taken down and users redirected to sites dedicated to commemorating earthquake victims.
Also in the quake area, three giant pandas were missing from the Wolong Nature Reserve for the endangered animals. Panda houses were severely damaged and five staff members were killed in the quake, forestry spokesman Cao Qingyao told Xinhua. The 60 other giant pandas were safe.
Chinese people, organizations and companies donated around 7.7 billion yuan (US$1.1 billion or euro710 million) for quake relief in the first week after the disaster, Xinhua said.
Primary school students mourn during their morning assembly at a school in Tianjin municipality
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------After consulting with the International Olympic Committee, the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad has decided to pause the ongoing torch relay on the mainland of China. For three days, May 19-21, the torch relay will be put on hold to honor the memory of those that lost their lives in the terrible earthquake that struck on May 12, affecting Sichuan Province's Wenchuan County and other areas.
Is 8 a good number for the Chinese actually? Since the earthquake took place 88 days before the Beijing Olympic...
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Are the changes in the Earth showing that it is coming to an end??
Temperature changes, weather and climate changes and the natural disasters that happened recently..The Cyclone Nargis and the Earthquake in Sichuan, China has took away hundred thousands of human lives.
All these are caused by human inconsiderate activities. When will they realise they have to stop those destruction?
RIP to those victims that lost their lives...
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