LANZHOU, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) -- Zein Alabdin Ali, a Syrian doctoral student who has lived in China for years, lay sleepless until dawn after a 6.2-magnitude earthquake hit northwest China last week.

Ali, 33, hailing from Damascus, the capital city of Syria, came to China to study in 2010. The earthquake occurring in northwest China's Gansu and Qinghai provinces reminded him of an earthquake that rocked Syria months ago.

"When my country was hit by the earthquake, China was among the first to extend a helping hand," said Ali. He added that he regards China as his second home and would love to help with the earthquake relief work as much as possible.

On Dec. 20, only two days after the quake, Ali arrived in Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu, with a non-governmental rescue team and then rushed to the quake-hit areas at midnight. After resting for only two hours, he started his four-day volunteering work, helping survey needs and coordinating and distributing relief supplies across several earthquake-stricken villages.

At the same time, another Iranian volunteer, Akbari Morteza, also joined the relief efforts.

Morteza, 37, comes from Qom City. Qom became a sister city with Gansu's Linxia City in 2017, and Morteza was invited to teach Persian at a vocational school in Linxia.

Linxia is only 40 kilometers from the Bonan-Dongxiang-Salar Autonomous County of Jishishan, where the quake was strongly felt. Morteza volunteered to go to the quake-hit areas to join rescue efforts.

Morteza said China has offered all kinds of aid during the past few earthquakes in Iran, and he is willing to reciprocate this friendship.

According to the Foreign Affairs Office of Gansu Province, sister cities, including Christchurch of New Zealand, Akita Prefecture of Japan, and Govi-Altay Aymag of Mongolia, sent letters of sympathy after the earthquake.

As people's lives in the quake-affected areas resumed steadily, Ali and Morteza also returned to their cities and resumed regular lives.

Staying focused on the follow-up reconstruction work in the earthquake-stricken areas, they said they wished the people there an early start to a new life.