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TONY EASTLEY: First to China where more than 40,000 people are dead, missing or buried under rubble as the horror of its devastating earthquake continues to unfold.

Rescue workers are finally reaching the worst affected areas in the mountains to the north of Chengdu in Sichuan province in south-western China.

Correspondent Stephen McDonell travelled to one of the worst affected counties.

STEPHEN MCDONELL: We set out to reach Beichuan not knowing if we'd get through. We'd heard that 80 per cent of buildings were destroyed there, but heavy rain and landslides were blocking roads into the mountains. Some roads in Sichuan were cracked apart by Monday's strong earthquake.

We drove through Mianyang on the way - 18,000 people were reportedly trapped under the rubble in areas around this city.

The further we drove from Mianyang to Beichuan, the more destruction we came across. Soon we were seeing whole villages that had been flattened.

One woman who'd fled from Beichuan left family members behind.

WOMAN (translated): I lost my daughter-in-law and grandson. I lost them. My daughter-in-law and my grandson are missing. A piece of the mountain just fell off and buried my house.

I've lost my family members. I'm very angry. It doesn't matter that I've lost my things but two of my family members are missing. My husband and I are looking for them but haven't found them yet.

STEPHEN MCDONELL: The road to Beichuan has convoys of soldiers heading into the mountains to join the rescue efforts. On the other side of the road are those who have been lucky enough to escape the earthquake. We spoke to one man as he jumped off the back of a truck crammed with people.

MAN (translated): When the earthquake happened at around 3.30 I was on a bus in Beichuan. The bus shook up and down and then from left to right. It almost turned over, so I got off the bus in a hurry.

The houses on both sides of the road have all collapsed. The roads have all collapsed. My house is gone too. My family is all right though. My child was in Mianyang at the time.

Lots of people have died. I think tens of thousands of people have died but the number isn't clear. Almost all students have died.

STEPHEN MCDONELL: People are running out of water in the mountains around Beichuan so when a water truck arrives from outside the quake zone, they rush to fill up whatever containers they can carry.

In Yaojincun village we watched a makeshift funeral for an 80-year-old man. The body of this Korean War veteran was on slab of wood in the middle of the rubble that was once his house. His black Kung Fu slippers were sticking out from under the sheet. His friends and family burnt incense and Chinese money for the afterlife.

Every house in this village was destroyed. Dozens died, everyone is homeless and their food is under the rubble too.

The weather forecast is for more rain in the coming days.

This is Stephen McDonell on the outskirts of Beichuan, for AM.