Two helicopters on a mission to rescue 14 Taiwan tourists, stranded in quake-hit Wenchuan County, had to fly back to Chengdu, Sichuan Province, for poor visibility.
The two helicopters were ready to take off again at any time when the weather permits, said a spokesman of the Taiwan affairs office of Sichuan.
The helicopters took off at 1:30 p.m. Saturday from Chengdu, the provincial capital, after the tourists, together with a local tour guide and a driver, had been spotted in Qipangou village of Wenchuan county at about 8:30 a.m. Saturday after they lost contact with the outside world for five days.
This tour group arrived in Chengdu on May 9. When the disaster happened on May 12, they were traveling from Maoxian county to Wenchuan.
The spokesman said all of them were taken good care of by local villagers.
They were reported as the last group of overseas tourists who remained stranded in the quake-hit area, according to China National Tourism Administration.
(Xinhua News Agency May 17, 2008)