By Chris Buckley
BEICHUAN, China (Reuters) - China began three days of national mourning on Monday for more than 30,000 victims of an earthquake that struck a week ago.
Public entertainment will be suspended, flags kept at half-mast and a three-minute silence observed to mark exactly a week since the quake, the government said.
The national flag in Tiananmen Square in central Beijing flew at half mast after a ceremony at dawn. The Olympic torch relay, currently on its domestic leg ahead of the August 8 opening in Beijing, will likewise be suspended for three days.
"I have come today with a heavy heart," said Liu Xianzeng, watching the ceremony in Tiananmen Square. "I feel for the victims of the earthquake and soldiers who are helping there."
Around the country air raid sirens and car, train and ship horns will also sound to "wail in grief" at 2:28 pm ET, the time the quake hit a week ago, the official Xinhua news agency said.
On the eve of the official mourning period, a fresh tremor in southwestern China killed three people, injured 1,000 and sent thousands fleeing their homes into the streets.
The tremor, one of the strongest aftershocks since the May 12 earthquake, hit Jiangyou city in Sichuan, Xinhua said.
It was 5.7 in magnitude and brought down a large number of houses, damaged 377 km (235 miles) of roads and six bridges, rescue authorities said late on Sunday. Continued...
The government of China announced it would begin three days of mourning on Monday, as the death toll from the 7.9 magnitude earthquake centered in the Sichuan province has been raised to nearly 32,500, with 220,000 injured. At 2:28 p.m local time, flags will be moved to half mast for three days, there will be three minutes of silence, and entertainment in public will be suspended for the mourning period.

A woman being rescued after being trapped for more than 50 hours
Authorities have continued to pull victims out of the rubble resulting from the quake, 65 since the original quake, with two pulled out alive more than six days after the earthquake. Rescuers are also trying to pull out two still alive. More than 9,500 people are still trapped under rubble throughout the province.

Hu Jintao
Chinese authorities are worried as aftershocks continue to affect the region devastated by the initial earthquake, while water builds up in clogged rivers. An 5.8 magnitude aftershock shook buildings and caused people to evacuate in Chengdu, 200 km (125 miles) south of the aftershock's epicenter. The aftershock killed three people and injured 1,000 others. A buildup of water is occurring 3 km (2 miles) upstream of Beichuan, where a man was freed from under a hospital's remains.

Chinese President Hu Jintao said to families of victims in Yinghua that "We will make every effort to save our people even if there is only the slightest hope and possibility." They are preventing people from going into the affected region for fear of these conditions. Families of possible victims who tried to enter the affected region were not allowed into the area by police, due to fears of aftershocks and the clogged rivers.

60 aid organizations from 13 countries have assisted so far with the earthquake, including Japan, Russia, Taiwan, South Korea, the United States and Singapore, and in addition to aid from inside China there has been 6 billion yuan (858 million United States dollars) of aid.