The youthful face displays little emotion when asked about his suffering, yet the ordeal is written all over his body. His left leg was amputated and he has a deep red scar on his right arm.

'I don't even know when I will be fitted for prosthesis because my wound still hasn't fully recovered yet,' says the once-avid basketball player, who also lost his grandfather in the 8-magnitude quake on May 12.

Indeed, the road leading to the makeshift classrooms on the campus, which is now located at the Changhong training centre at Mianyang, in Sichuan province , might be just a short distance away, but it looks like a huge challenge for Hongjie to get there on crutches.

Added to this is another challenge: to master writing with his left hand. 'I can't write with my right hand now because my fingers are damaged,' says the youngster.

His left arm is adorned with a wristband, a gift from a friend, that reads: 'Smile, learn to be enterprising and responsible.'

His face brightens only when basketball is mentioned. 'I can't play now, but I can still watch it. Of course I want to play sports again, but I don't know if I ever will.'

For many at the school, yesterday not only marked the start of a new academic year but also symbolised the beginning of a life that will never be the same. And the wounds - not only physical agony, but also psychological trauma - are simply too deep to be healed.

What Zhou Peijie can never forget, he says in his wheelchair, is the cold he felt while he was trapped under the rubble for 30 hours before being rescued.

'I just felt so chilly, and then my leg didn't have any feeling any more,' says Peijie, 16, whose left leg had to be cut off. 'Many of my classmates were killed. My parents also died in the quake.'

Peijie was released from hospital only about two weeks ago.

The campus is dotted with signposts indicating special paths for the handicapped. Headmaster Liu Yachun has pledged more facilities for the 20 or so students with special needs who joined the ceremony. More such students will return to the school after they are released from hospital.

'My goal is that these students do not need other people to push [their wheelchairs] in the future, but of course, other students should help them with chores like getting lunch,' Mr Liu says.

Apart from providing psychological counselling, the school has decided to cut the number of class periods from eight to seven so that students have more time to take part in extra-curricular activities. 'The students have matured very quickly after the quake, and many of them now have tried to conceal their emotions ... this may not be a good thing because they may lose their childhood much earlier than normal,' Mr Liu says.

While the future is uncertain and the quake is too painful a memory for many, some students say they have decided to study hard and contribute to society now that they have survived amid all the hardship.

'I always think of my classmates who were killed in the quake. Every time I think of them, I can't help but cry,' says 15-year-old Zhou Siyi , who was wandering around on crutches. Though injured during the quake, she is expected to make a full recovery in two months.

'After the quake, I want to study harder and hope to be a useful person in the future.'

Fellow student Mu Zhihong , who was unscathed in the quake as his class was having physical education, agrees. 'I hope that I can equip myself,' he says, 'so that if anything happens in the future, I will be able to help others'.