Fences adorned with yellow ribbons floating in the breeze greeted pupils and teachers of Yusha Primary School in Jianli county, China's central Hubei province, when they arrived at school on Friday morning.
"Hope the family members find their loved ones soon!" read one ribbon with words in a child's handwriting.
The ribbons were tied to the fences by young well-wishers as days of rain and overcast skies finally gave way to bright sunshine on Friday.
The impromptu monument in Rongcheng township has made the school a landmark among relatives and reporters now gathered in the county in Hubei province, near where the Eastern Start cruise ship capsized on the Yangtze River on Monday night.
But what's less known is that the building is also where final-year high school pupils will sit their university entrance examinations, which start tomorrow.
Rongcheng has three sites - Yusha Primary, Jianli High School and Jianli No 1 High School - where more than 6,000 pupils across the county will take the two-day exam.
Of course I agreed to the cancellation … I have to support [those] in need
Many of the pupils and their parents have booked rooms in the township's hotels and guesthouses to save on travelling time from the villages where they live to their exam venues.
But the Eastern Star disaster has brought some 1,200 people, including 300 relatives of the cruise passengers, to Rongcheng, and most rooms have been taken up by the rescue workers, officials and family members.
A hotel near Jianli High School, which usually sees its more than 100 rooms fully booked by parents who accompany their children to the exams, is now occupied by rescue teams and government staff from Shanghai and Chongqing.
A front desk worker said if no one checked out, she would have to call those who had made reservations, to inform them their bookings might be cancelled.
The owner of a hotel near Yusha Primary had already called more than 10 parents who had booked rooms and told them the rooms were no longer available.
"Most parents were very understanding and agreed to cancel the booking," she said.
The father of a pupil at Jianli No 1 High School, said: "Of course I agreed to the cancellation. There is no other way. It was such a big disaster; I have to support the people in need."
The father said he might stay with a relative in town instead.
A front desk worker at another hotel said some parents had called and voluntarily cancelled their bookings to make space for the rescuers and relatives.
Fu Yongfeng, a teacher from Jianli No1 High School, said arrangements had been made for out-of-town pupils to stay in dormitories in Rongcheng's two high schools.
"There are fewer than 2,000 examinees coming from the villages and towns outside. The high schools' dormitories can accommodate all of them," Fu said.