China Travel Tips

Reflections on Travel in China

Friday, October 24, 2008

China Earthquake Visited




I just returned from China Oct. 20th after visiting the earthquake area in Sichuan province. One needs to see it to really understand what happened. Imagine a 100 mile long area by 30 miles wide being fully destroyed by the earthquake. I was allowed to go to one city at the southern end of the earthquake called Dujiang Yan City. Part of the city was unaffected but the rest is as you see above. 11,000 + people were killed, 20,000+ injured and 279 people still unaccounted for. 30,000 15' X 15' emty rooms have been erected for the survivors from several cities. No facilities in them. 15 rooms share one room for cooking and 50 rooms share a group bathroom with no showers available. One woman was walking down the street. She told us she had just stepped out of her house onto the street when it struck and that her whole house fell down and killed the rest of her family. She does not know what to do and just keeps walking around in disbelief as she has no family left. Most have jobs in other cities now but it will be years before they will have normal living conditions again. Meanwhile all along the road are tents made from blue tarps in which farmers are living in order to be closer to their land and to make some kind of living. Keep watching my blog for more stories from my recent trips. Check out my web site at www.interlakechinatours.com .

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