President Hu Jintao talks with students from earthquake-affected areas in Zhongnanhai, the seat of China's Central Government, on July 16.

The students were among 1,000 child quake victims from Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi provinces who left for a three-week recuperative vacation in Russia on July 17. Hu gave them words of encouragement and wished them well on their way.

An 8.0-magnitude earthquake, the worst in China in more than five decades, struck Wenchuan County in Sichuan Province on May 12, leaving nearly 70,000 people dead and more than 18,000 people missing.

Soon after the tragedy, Russia offered to receive children from the disaster zone in its rehabilitation institutions for further recovery.