Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Kong Quan (C, back) poses for photo with the five released Chinese telecom workers in Beijing on Jan. 22, 2007. (Xinhua Photo/Wang Jianhua) Photo Gallery >>>

    BEIJING, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- The five released Chinese telecom workers who were taken hostage on Jan. 5 in the southern Nigerian state of Rivers arrived in Beijing Monday afternoon.

    Assistant Foreign Minister Kong Quan was at the airport to greet the workers.

    Kong said at the airport that leaders of the Communist Party of China and the state government had been extremely concerned for the kidnapped workers.

    President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao ordered the foreign ministry and Chinese embassy and consulate in Nigeria to do everything possible to rescue the kidnapped workers, said Kong.

    The Chinese government has always attached great importance to the safety and rights of overseas Chinese, said Kong, adding overseas Chinese should also raise awareness of their own safety.

    All five hostages are from Sichuan Province. Two are interpreters from the provincial capital Chengdu and three are technicians from the cities of Meishan and Neijiang, according to the provincial commerce department.

    Representatives from the Ministry of Commerce and the Sichuan provincial government were also at the airport to welcome the five workers.

    The five Chinese workers were kidnapped on Jan. 5 by gunmen from their residence in Rumuakunde Emouha, a village about 35 km from Port Harcourt, the capital of Nigeria's southern state of Rivers.

    After thirteen days of intense work by a team including Chinese embassy staff and staff from China's Sichuan Telecommunication Company for which the kidnapped work, the five were released on Jan. 17.