The exercise simulated a quake in Wenchuan and its effects on Chengdu, Sichuan's capital, and Yunnan, Gansu and Shaanxi, demonstrating that it was possible for people to get to safety up to 164 seconds before seismic waves arrived, said Wang Tun, head of the Institute of Care-Life.

In many parts of the country, a real-time early warning system already runs on TV sets and mobile phones, which people can make use of in case of an earthquake, he said.

The system sends warnings seconds after a quake is detected and can help save lives because the warnings are transmitted via radio waves, which are able to travel far faster than seismic waves. By way of reference, radio waves travel at 300,000 kilometers per second, while seismic shock waves travel at only 3 to 6 km per second.

Chen Huizhong, a senior research fellow with the China Earthquake Administration's Institute of Geophysics, said this means people nearby have a chance to escape before they even feel the quake.