China Charity Federation Tuesday started to receive donations through its official website after an increasing demand from donators across the country.

In the past few days, thousands of Chinese people donated to the tsunami victims through the post offices and banks. Some said they would like to give via the Internet, according to the federation.

After emergency technical upgrade and tests, the website can receive donations from the electronic bank cards of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank and China Merchants Bank.

The three banks have promised to erase the transfer fee for the donation and the donators can directly check the transfer situation of their donation on the website, said the federation.

China Charity Federation and its branches at various levels have received 98.26 million yuan (US$11.88 million) and the total donation to the tsunami-hit countries in the Chinese mainland have exceeded 150 million yuan (US$18.11 million) by 4 p.m. Monday, according to the special office coordinating non-governmental donations to the disaster-hit countries under the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
 
(Xinhua News Agency January 12, 2005)