As this photo gallery of the devastation shows, some key factors are contributing to the high death toll and hampering the recovery efforts:

• The sheer magnitude of the damage: Many areas in Sichuan Province, home of the 7.9 quake's epicenter, are completely leveled.

• Restricted access to areas in need: Roads are not only blocked, but in some cases buckled and tore apart, making routes into hard-hit areas impassable.

• Damage to the dams: The Chinese government has had to divert troops away from rescue/recovery efforts to try to patch up cracks. If these dams burst, flooding would immensely magnify the suffering already being felt in western China.

State media is saying that officials have now reached all affected areas, and hence come the predictions that the official death toll could likely double to 50,000.

Like its ally Myanmar, China refused the help of foreign-aid workers. But perhaps learning a lesson from the cyclone disaster and realizing the devastation was too much for them to handle, China on Thursday let in a rescue team from its foe, Japan.

Meanwhile, the Times of London has a round-up of Chinese bloggers' complaints that quake warning signs -- from restless animals to the sudden massive drop in water level in a large pond in Hubei province -- were reported to authorities but brushed off.

(Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)