1. Chinese mainland in quick support to typhoon-ravaged Taiwan

BEIJING/TAIPEI, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) -- Taiwan has started building homes for hundreds of homeless families left by Typhoon Morakot with assistance from the mainland.

Prefabricated houses with blue roof and white walls, donated by the Chinese mainland, are being set up in Pingtung County in the south of the island.

Local authorities told Xinhua Saturday that so far more than 400 homeless families have applied for the prefab houses, which have been tested safe.

Recovering signs appear in the island as Xinhua reporters saw children in the county studied in a mobile bookstore on rubble, and villages in Kaohsiung County sold homemade handbags to save money for reconstruction.

In addition to the Taiwan authorities' three-year reconstruction budget of about 100 billion New Taiwan Dollars (3.12 billion U.S. dollars), the Chinese mainland has contributed 781.8 million yuan (115 million U.S. dollars) two weeks after the disaster hit Taiwan.

The mainland's donation came from all circles of the country, including people in Sichuan Province who received generous support from Taiwan compatriots and Buddhists and monks who pray for blessings of the typhoon victims in the island.

The mainland has promised to spare no effort and offer medical, rescue, engineering and other available personnel or equipment that Taiwan compatriots need.

On Friday afternoon, 18 tonnes of vegetable was shipped to Kinmen from its closest mainland city Xiamen of Fujian Province as an emergent support to ease the vegetable shortage caused by the typhoon.

Other disaster-relieving materials from the mainland are on the way to the island. The second batch of prefab houses arrived in Kaohsiung on Saturday afternoon and three mainland engineers headed for Taiwan to help install those houses.

The mainland's ports, maritime and transport authorities have provided favorable procedures for the disaster relief materials to Taiwan.

2. More mainland technicians leave for Taiwan to help typhoon victims

BEIJING, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- Another seven Chinese mainland technicians left for Taiwan on Monday to help install prefabricated houses on the typhoon-hit island.

The first batch of three technicians started working on the island after they arrived Saturday night. But the work was still short-handed, and Taiwan authorities granted permission to send other mainland technicians as soon as possible.

The seven technicians left for Kaohsiung aboard the Taiwan-based Mandarin Airlines AE 0982 Flight from Hong Kong at 10:25 a.m.. They would assist the first three to build houses after arrival.

Morakot on Aug. 8 was the worst typhoon to hit the island in nearly 50 years, wreaking havoc across the central and southern regions. It has so far claimed at least 163 lives on the island, left hundreds of others missing and destroyed houses.

The mainland planned to send 1,000 prefab houses with a worth of nearly 20 million yuan (2.9 million U.S. dollars) to Taiwan. By Monday afternoon there would be 600 houses forwarded to the island and the last batch was supposed to arrive on Sunday.