Two sisters hug and cry after being reunited on Friday in Beichuan.

When the deadly earthquake struck on Monday, hundreds of thousands of people immediately lost contact with loved ones.

Now every survivor's top priority is to locate missing relatives and friends to make sure they're all safe.

Ge Jun, a student at Guangzhou's South China Normal University, hails from Beichuan, one of the worst-hit towns, near the quake's epicenter.

Before he boarded a plan for Chengdu on Tuesday night, the ethnic Qiang student received a special stipend of 5,000 yuan from his school and 10,000 yuan more donated by teachers and classmates.

He had heard his grandparents had made it to safety, his father was away on a business on Monday, and that his cousin had clawed his way out of the debris.

But his mother and little sister were nowhere to be found.

"My sister's school had no survivors, and my mom is probably no longer alive," he said, choking away tears.

Ge said he and his mom were "like buddies".

"I call her Second Sister, because she is the second child of her family," he said.

"I have to go find her, dead or alive - I'd give my life to get her back alive."