FORTY-FIVE Singaporeans holidaying in scenic Jiuzhaigou are stranded in the north of Sichuan province - albeit in a six-star hotel.

They spent the third day at the Jiuzhai Paradise Hotel and are not clear when they can leave the resort place.

The group was into the fourth day of an eight-day excursion with SA Tours to Jiuzhaigou, Taoping Qiang Village and the Dead Sea of China when the powerful 7.8 magnitude quake struck southwest China on Monday.

They left Singapore on May 9 and were scheduled to return on Friday. Now the returned date may be delayed.

Tour guide Wendy Zhang Wei told The Straits Times on Wednesday that all the 45 are safe and calm.

'They are entertaining themselves with the amenities at the hotel but are still anxious to go home. There is sufficient food and water in the hotel,' she said.

The quake and its aftermath have affected the roads leading in and out of Jiuzhaigou. They are not passable to vehicles and the only means to leave the area is by air, said Ms Zhang said.

Ngee Ann Polytechnic student Pang Sui Lin, 19, who is with the group, said in her blog that the roads leading to the next stop - Taoping Qiang Village - was not safe to travel on 'due to falling rocks'.

She also recounted that they had to spend Monday night on the tour bus.

'That night, we were 200km away from Wenchuan, the main area where the earthquake occurred. I felt the bus shaking around 4.15am,' said Ms Pang, who is on the tour with her parents and two siblings.

Like the rest in her group, she is keeping her fingers crossed that she and her family will be able to get a flight back to Chengdu on Thursday and homeward to Singapore.

To read Pang Sui Lin's blog, log onto http://songsaga.blogspot.com/2008/05/important-update.html