Ping's Report (4) photos

My dear friends,

Here're the photos I didn't have time to attach last

night. 

Mian Yang -- Is a city about 110 km away from Chengdu

(the Capital of Sichuan Province). 

An Xian -- is one of the counties in Mian Yang. 

In photo "MianYang 5", on the red banner on the wall,

it's written " Disaster Relief Effort We are

together."

Those poorly build tents are some of the survivors'

homes for now. 

Remember in my report #2, i described a tibetan boy

called "Lang Zhen" -- the saluting boy? He's only 3

yrs old!! After the photo of him saluting to the

soldiers was published, it became a national hit! Many

boys' parents claimed it's their boy who's on the

photo. But they're all denied by the photographer.

Till a few days later, the real boy, Lang Zhen saw his

photo in the hospital. He pointed it to his mom (whose

leg is injured) "It was me." "But I didn't cry, I

really didn't cry." "Look at how many uncle soldiers

came to rescue me, one, two, three,..." He started to

count. According to his mother, the first 3 days after

Lang Zhen was rescued, and found his mother, he kept

saying to himself "I want to talk to my mom, I want to

talk to my mom..." Now, he doesn't allow his mother to

leave him a second. His dad is a local policeman who

only came back to visit him after his surgery one

night. Then, he returned back to the disaster relief

work. I attached some recent photos of happy Lang

Zhen, as shown in photo "LangZhen 1-3".

Photo "Panda" --

During earthquake, our national treasure: Giant Panda

bears were so scared that they climbed up and got all

together...

Photo "saved baby" --

This is another photo of this saved baby with her

mom's will left on the mobile phone.

Photo "9 Year old brother" --

It's an amazing story: Only 9 yr old brother carried

his 3 yr old sister walked by foot for more than 12

hours out of the disaster area -their home, with their

old grand parents. Both of their parents died in the

earthquake.

Photo "Transport Wife" --

A man was carrying his dead wife to funeral home... He

returned her a dignity on the way... 

Some people were surprised at the number of the death

concentrated in such rural area... In fact, Sichuan is

one of the most populated province in China. The

affected areas are very popular tourist region. If

this earthquake came in June to July, there would be

even more death, as every year, Chengdu people always

go there for Summer vacation. (My parent's summer

house was completely destroyed also) The temperature

there is lower than in Chengdu in the summer. 

The sceneries there are amazingly beautiful. Chengdu

people use to be very proud of those close to reach

natural access around their cosmopolitan city which

you can't get by living in Beijing nor in Shanghai.

For example, An Xian is well known for its hot

springs, and thousand-buddha mountain... People who

use to live in those disaster area had a comfortable

life style before because of tourism. Now, many

mountains and roads and their homes were destroyed...

They lost their homes, families, and the mean for

making a living... It significantly impacted Sichuan

tourism... Now, you can see empty Taxi's are

everywhere in the city... Many taxi drivers said they

would probably forced to search other jobs shortly...

Many other business related to tourism are also

significantly affected. I've traveled to many

countries in the world, but never once been to the

beautiful areas so close home. Now, it'll remain my

personal regret forever...

Photo "Me" ---

On my trip to Mian Yang An Xian, as my medical doctor

friend warned me about this scary bacteria, I

"equipped" myself from head to toes with military

uniforms and boots, also with my dad's old T shirt (I

cut off the collar part) completely prepared to throw

away everything upon return.

To my surprise, the driver can't hold himself any

longer in the end I guess. Finally, he made a comment

by the end of the trip, "I've driven for many groups

to the disaster area. But never seen any one who

dressed as stylish as you, you even put on a military

belt!" We all laughed so loud in the jeep. 

I don't know if I should take it as a sincere

compliment or as a sarcastic implication for my

stupidity. I realized how "over-equipped" I was

towards the end too. (I even carried swiss knife,

first Aids, umbrella etc) Especially consider I was

with International Red Cross officers, and I dressed

like a military soldier!? Plus, I seriously followed

the weather forecast which predicted a heavy rain that

day. It turned out to be a sunny day instead. As I was

scared to death by the warning from this MD friend the

night before: "This (scary) bacteria would get into

the water from dead bodies berried underneath the

rubbles... " So, my eye-catching shinny black

military boots made me look even more hilarious, and

give me this clumsy gait! On the top of that, if we

were really got lost in the earthquake, it would be

really dumb to wear a camouflage so that no one would

even see me! Such a stupid yet typical Pingish

mistake!

I will have to stop doing voluntary work for a while

to catch up my own business here. But i will try to

squeeze time to continue my reports to you. 

Thanks for reading.

Ping's Report (4)

My dear friends,

I did experience this biggest aftershock at the scale
of 6.4 yesterday in Chengdu right at home this Sunday.
To me, it's not something scary. But everyone here ran
out of the building rather quickly. By the time my
father and i got downstairs (my mom was in Beijng for
business trip), there're already a lot of people got
out of their buildings and talking loudly about this
scary experience.

Started from a few days ago, Chinese government paired
up provinces with damaged counties, one province match
with one county -- providing one to one disaster
relief assistance, total 21 provinces involved.

On Saturday, there're total 34 artificial lakes which
were formed from huge rocks and soil broken off of
near by mountains. They blocked the normal flow of the
previous rivers and formed those artificial lakes.
They're dangerous to have, because the water level
keeps raising in the lake, and it can break off or
over flowed easily and affect the regions down the
streams.

Last Saturday, Chinese government were discussing how
to solve the problem. There're three possibilities:
1. Release the water, keep the its level low in the
lake. Prevent over flow.
2. Re-enforce the rocks and soil to block the water.
3. Remove people who live down the stream to safe
areas.

Government chose #1 & #3.

But it's not an easy task at all. How to transport
heavy machineries to the area? It's impossible to go
by through land. It left only possibility to get there
by helicopters. To lift 800 ton weight excavator, they
need to use the biggest helicopter in the world --
Russian made M 26. But it's impossible for human to
stand still within certain range close to an operating
helicopter. So, how to untie the cords which are used
to tie the machine?... Plus, it's very difficult to
land on the small area which is formed by broken off
rocks etc... Because it's in the mountain area, the
weather condition changes easily. They need
professional meteorologist to give them accurate
weather condition report to guide the helicopters...

As the water level of artificial lakes keep raising,
and there's another heavy rain in a few days, there're
not many days left for operation. They have to get the
digging & releasing work done before the rain arrives.

Those info was on Sat. But up to today, there're
already 20 excavators sent to the area, and they
expect to finish digging in 10 days. See website below
for photos:


http://news.cdqss.com/html/2008-05/27/content_71347.htm


Also, check those photos as their names stated what
they are.

On this Monday, I went to one of the disaster area
called An Xian (county). Every government official
slept no more than 3 hours every night since disaster
hit. At night, they sleep in the cars, during the day,
they work at the tents -- their temporary offices. If
they want to take a shower, they have to take risk go
back to their previous homes, and quickly run out
after done.

There're some original photos taken in An Xian -- you
can still see some broken houses, and the terrible
tents people built themselves.

Sorry, I will have to attach them tomorrow morning.
The book bar is closing. sorry about it.

Thanks for reading

Ping's Report (3)

I forgot to mention something I thought was amazing:

1. Chinese government sent out money (range from 200 -

300 thousand yuan each) immediately to each hospital

of chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan, which is

taking the wounded to cover all of their medical cost.

2. Chinese government will be responsible to provide

free college tuition and living expenses for each

senior high school students who are from the disaster

region and passed their university entrance exams. For

those who don't, and can't go to the universities,

Chinese government will help them placement in

technical schools/institutions to make sure they could

find a work to be independent after graduation. 

3. I heard that Chinese Petroleum Company and another

major Chinese company offers all gas used during

disaster relief for free. -- I need to check their

exact English names. 

4. The government made a rule to the bank and real

estate companies: No push for mortgage payment by the

real estate companies/banks are allowed. No extra

pressure on the payment on the survivors who purchased

condo before the disaster. 

5. Job fair in Shuang Liu city yesterday organized by

local government to help earthquake survivors to make

money and to be self-efficient.

6. Reporters are sent to check out grocery price in

Chengdu. According to their investigation, there's no

price raised and the price of some vegetables are even

lowered. Chengdu citizens are quite satisfied with it.

7. Constipation is a very common problem in the

disaster affected area as their main food source is

cookies, crackers, ramen noodles. Two private

companies have volunteered many times to donate 10

tons of fresh vegetables to police stations after

several hours of driving. To their surprise, the

police station insisted not to accept them, but to

give to the soldiers who have been working in the

frontier. "They need the fresh vegetables much more

than us. We can still carry on with whatever we have

here." The head of the police station stated. 

8. Psychological counseling / therapy sessions are

very much encouraged and provided in a timely manner

to the survivors. There're many children and

parents... became depressed after this disaster... 

9. So far, 3737 Trains full of supplies have gone to

East Train Station in Chengdu. Volunteers from all

over China came here to help with loading. Each truck

drivers also are volunteers to deliver to shuang Liu

City from the train station.

10. 3.30 million tents are urgently needed for the

fact there're more than 5 million people wait to be

placed. ALSO, cleaning vehicles and water sprinkler

vehicles are most urgently needed for sanitary

purpose.

11. 1026 elements, only 6 of them were damaged in

Chengdu. One particular school camera record shows

Jing Sha elementary school teachers evacuated the

entire school students (almost 1000 people) in less

than a minute to the safe ground. 

12. Sichuan provincial hospital: All surgical staffs

work in two shifts keep the department open 24 hours a

day. On the day of earthquake, none of the staffs left

patients alone in operating room. They protected

patients till it's safe to transfer. So far, they had

done total 1488 surgeries since disaster happened. 

13. 200 tons of supplies each day arrive at Du Jiang

Yan, a city where 1/3 of housing were destroyed. 38

million medicines have been donated and they have been

categorized and stored properly according to their

properties. All the rest of buildings in Du Jiang Yan

city are being checked by a group of experts which is

consist of more than 100 scientists from all over

China. So far, in provincial area, total more than 800

experts have checked the safety of affected area for

total more than 1100 million square meters. 

14. Government officials have been discussing to

provid money to each family who has lost their child

in school collapse in Du Jiang Yan city.

15. There're 2384 students in "An county" high school,

not a single student died during the earthquake. In

each class room, every teacher left the building after

making sure all the students ran to the safe area

first. A teacher was hit by a collapsing wall. The

moment before he was hit, he pushed students away to

the safe place... 

16. According to today's Sichuan provincial TV news

this morning: So far, confirmed death 50651, injured

277028, 23803 stayed in the hospital, 22690 discharged

from the hospital. 2873 patients have been transfered

to other cities in China.

Press conference as of May 23rd:

Sichuan University and SouthWest University in Chengdu

would like to admit the children of those who died in

helping with disaster relief effort. How many "heros"

like that have died during this relief effort?

---"Since there're more than 7000 times aftershocks

(specific number is 7182 times). The priority is still

to save lives. Provincial government has to follow

strict identifying procedures in order to verify "hero

status" of those who died during disaster relief."

...

Most of the above info is from direct translation from

TV reports.

Thanks for reading.

Ping's Report (2)

Dear All,

May 22nd, Chengdu

Life really seems to be quite "normal" here in

Chengdu, except from time to time, you can see some

colorful temporary housing / Tents built inside some

gardens / green terrain scattered in

 the university

campus and road side... and much less traffic on the

roads...

As I promised, I attached some photos from Chengdu

News Paper.

For Photo: "Salute" ---

On May 13th, there's a Tibetan boy called "Lang Zhen"

Meaning "Clear, beautiful mountain" saluted to the

soldiers for a long time after he was saved from the

rubbles. His left arm was broken. This salute is in

the style of Young Pioneers (Chinese elementary school

students are called "Young Pioneers", marked with a

red triangle scarf around their neck. This triangle

shaped scarf is considered a corner of national flag.)

My cousin who use to travel to this region told me

that she saw young kids there often saluted in this

way to the tourists. Because they're told by their

teachers that their home town was very poor before.

It's because of tourists that they could have better

life. "So, whenever you see them, you should thank

them" The teacher told them. I am sure despite of the

fact this little boy was crying, deep down inside,

he's very thankful and used this highest ritual he

knows to salute at, and to thank the soldiers who

saved him! 

For Photo Dog1, 2 & 3 --

There're many military dogs were used during the

search process. Many of them are over worked just like

their trainers. You can see the injuries on some of

the dogs' feet after their shoes were take out. 

"One of the dog found total 35 wounded people berried

underneath the ground. 32 of them were saved and 3 of

them passed away after being taken out. 

On May 18th, he got into a small space after he

discovered another victim. But soon, there's another

aftershock, and he's berried under immediately.

According to the military rules, all military-dogs are

the people's dogs, carrying military duties having

their military ID's, just like his training soldier.

They ARE soldiers as well. If they're wounded during

the mission, their trainers must carry him live or

dead. If he's dead, his training also has to burry him

properly afterwards. 

When he's dig out by this trainer, he's very badly

wounded, his internal organs were broken... and his

breathing got weaker and weaker, and died in the end.

The soldier's tears wet his entire face and dropped on

the dog's fur... He held him like holding his baby...

That night, volunteer who documented this story heard

the weeping from the tent of this soldier, like a

father crying for his dead son..." ( From a

volunteer's diary "CCTV")

For Photo "5/13 BeiChuan, and 5/13 Beichuan 2" ---

People's soldiers are seen in all dangerous and most

difficult situations and places. They parachuted from

more than 6700 meter high to bring supplies and send

messages to the heavily damaged area... This

impossible jump under impossible conditions put their

own lives in risk... After the mission, many of them

couldn't get up from the ground because they're

terribly lack of oxygen in this high altitude... 

Lack of machineries, each of them had to carry a bag

full of 40 kg foods on shoulders and held with hands

-- There's no ropes to tie around their bodies. At the

same time climbing up mountains with more than 60

degrees of slope, while searching for the road!! ... 

"One soldier stepped wrong, the bag was falling down.

He quickly grabbed it single handly, and immediately

dislocated that shoulder. But he insisted not to let

the food bag go despite of the unbearable pain...till

his fellow teammates helped him. "Because this bag of

food can save a lot of people's lives. It is just too

precious to get lost", he said." (From "Chengdu Shang

Bao" News Paper)

Those soldiers are digging with their bare hands,

carry heavy poles and lift cements with their own

man-power... So lack of rest... I'm really worried for

their own health...

The rest of the photos are taken from web search.

Sorry I forgot the website name. 

So many moving stories... So many!... You can see

everyone's eyes are red, watered when they're telling

you about the stories... and the newspapers are always

wet after being read... 

I saw an interview at the scene from TV report: A

Tibetan nurse from shanghai returned to the disaster

area voluntarily to help (There're many Tibetans

living in those earthquake area). She said "I'm very

touched by so many people from all over China to come

here to help us, help our ethic group (as Tibetans are

one of 56 ethnic groups in China). There's only ONE

group in China, and it's called 'Chinese'!" Then, she

cried... 

(It reminds me: Only a few weeks ago, Tibetan's

protests launched all over the world against Chinese

government... Yet it's the exact same government and

same soldiers they're against sent out help to them

immediately upon natural disaster, taking all the

difficulties and risks on their own. Of course, one of

their religious branch leader Dalai LaMa also didn't

forget them either, he sent out prayers. )

24 hours news, reports, analysis, donations are

playing non stop on TV's. Almost every little worry

you may have would have been thought about by the

government before, and the plans and solutions have

already been carried out way before your worries...

Maybe that's the reason why I haven't sensed any panic

here at all. In fact, all the people I've talked to

are all so united, very positive and moved by the

national reactions and response to this disaster. I

guess we surprised ourselves completely! Our previous

worries for our young generation of 70's and 80's

being not so responsible and very self-centered are

proved to be completely wrong! What a pleasant

surprise.

I translated many parts of the local news in this

email. I will be more attentive on the details such as

where and what date of the newspaper in my future

emails. (See, I need to learn to be a better amateur

"reporter". :-) )

Tomorrow, I had a great opportunity to go to the worst

hit town in this disaster with NPR radio reporters as

a translator. At first, I was very thrilled for this

incredible opportunity!!! But then, I heard from

internal source. I was warned the danger of contagious

disease and the necessary equipment I would have to

need if I go... It's obviously that I am not prepared

at all!! I only have slippers, skirts... And only have

less than 2 hours to prepare (tonight!). So, I had to

let this opportunity go.... I'm sorry that if I let

you miss a first hand experience... But I'm sure you

would much more prefer a healthy Ping back safely. 

... Never feel it's enough written... But

It's almost 4am. I have to go to sleep now - I should

have done that 5 hours ago. Tomorrow, I may be called

as a translator for another group... 

Thanks for reading.

Ping's Report (1)

Dear All, 

I'm certainly not a professional reporter, but I would like to bring 

you to this experience through my own

eyes and my honest words...

Last night, after a long flight from Chicago to

Shanghai, then catch a domestic flight to 

Chengdu, my

home city, also the base for the disaster relief

effort. I finally arrived Chengdu 2 hours later than

the original plan. 

My luggage was total 21 lbs over the weight limit. But

as soon as they heard I was going to Chengdu, they let

me go without saying anything more. 

At Shanghai Pudong Airport, flat TV screens are placed

all over the waiting area. They were all playing 24

hours news coverage of the disaster relief effort.

(Pic: SHairport 1 & SHairport 2 -- The passengers were

all watching.)

As I was waiting for my transfer flight from shanghai,

I got to watch part of the #9 live news conference

held in Chengdu by Sichuan Provincial government

(apparently, they started this TV series since the day

one of disaster). T

he head administrator of each

department within the provincial government answered

questions reporters from all over China. Some of those

questions were: 

1. What's the long term plan of the government for

those bilateral (both) lower extremity amputee

orphans?

2. "What's the single item that's most needed at this

time?"

--- Answer is "Tents"! "Despite of the fact a lot of

Chinese manufactories have already been working over

time day and

 night, they still couldn't match with the

needs. So, the government has already been looking for

buying from foreign countries..."

3. A reporter from Hu Bei Province aske, "when the

wounded could be sent to Hu Bei as they're looking

forward to take care of the patients from disaster

area?"

4. "What's the answer to some private companies and

individual who volunteer to donate their office space

and private homes to accommodate the refugees?"

5. "What's government's thought regarding that some

individuals and companies would like to adopt orphans

left after the disaster?"

--- The related administrator listed the procedure

process and criteria for adoption in China. In the

end, pointed out it's n

ot allowed for any business

entities to adopt orphans. 

6. A reporter asked if the specific reason which

triggered this huge earthquake is because of building

irrigation engineering project in the upper level...

...

From the window, I can see boxes of boxes full of

supplies were carried to our plane as shown on the

photos "SHairport 3, 4, &5". 

When I got on Sichuan 3U airline to Chengdu, I picked

two local Chinese and 1 English newspapers (China

Daily). The ne

ws and stories of earthquake covered

every pa

ge of all three. Tears companied me during the

entire 3 hour-flight after that. The forefront and

last pages of C

hina Daily of May 21st were the entire

photos as in the attachment na

med "China Daily 1&2".

(If I recognized it correctly, the last photo is from

a German Photographer's photo album, called

"Himalaya"...)

May 19-21st: Three day National mourning period.

The flight attendant's initial greeting after all the

passengers sat down has changed to "Let's mourn for

all the victims in WenChuan earthquake..." 

Among the passengers, there're at least 4 volunteers

going for the disaster relief: three for setting up

water purifier equipment, wearing a white band on his

arm (photo "VTCDairport"), 1 for delivering medicines,

some others I wasn't sure.

The first night, I stayed at my parent's place. At the

side of the bed, I saw something "strange", two empty

beer bottles were placed upside down in vertical

line.... ??? What's that?! Later, I was told it's my

father's home-made earthquake alarm system -- see

photo "Homemade". :-) I hope it brings you a little

smile. I kind of doubt if it works properly as it fell

to detect a small aftershock last night. 

Most of today, May 22nd, I spent on watching TV news,

newspapers, and searching on Websites. I found some

very moving stories and photos, which I will send on

Ping's Report (2). 

Thanks for reading.