Heavy rain over southwest China on Wednesday is likely to interrupt relief efforts and raise the risk of reservoir breaches in earthquake-stricken areas, where tents have become the most-wanted item.
Thousands of aftershocks and a forecast of more rain compounded the difficulties for military, government and private workers trying to deliver aid and ensure millions get shelter as the focus of relief work turned inevitably from rescue to relief.
New survivors were still being found in the rubble on Tuesday, eight days after the disaster. One was a 60-year-old woman who Xinhua said had survived on rainwater.
But a Japanese rescue team pulled out of the area on Tuesday after failing to find anyone alive under the ruined buildings and will be replaced by a medical team.
Officials said China needed up to 3 million tents to house an estimated 5 million people left homeless by May 12's 7.9-magnitude quake in Sichuan province.
Vice provincial governor Li Chengyun on Tuesday appealed other parts of China and the outside world to donate tents.
Premier Wen Jiabao ordered the supply of 250,000 temporary housing units -- simple steel structures normally used by construction workers -- to the quake area by June 30 and the number should reach 1 million in three months, state media said.
Many residents of Chengdu, the provincial capital hit by a persistent drizzle on Wednesday, spent the night in tents, fearful of building collapses.
Nearly the whole population of Shifang, a small city near Chengdu, slept outside on Tuesday night despite the rain. In the countryside, many farmers now live in encampments of makeshift shelters with their homes too damaged or too unsafe to live in.
