Results tagged “dujiangyan”

Over 16,000 people were stranded in Sichuan and Xinjiang last night after a giant fog enveloped Western China, just in time to screw up traffic for Spring Festival season. Visibility was less than 10 meters, not even close to the 500 meters required for take off. Expressways linking Chengdu to several nearby cities also had to be closed. But no need to get misty-eyed about a bleary situation for our West China friends, by 5am flights had started up again and traffic began its slow crawl by 11am. Spokespeople for Chengdu airport said they should clear the backlog by late tonight. Source: Xinhua

Sichuan has reopened 17 tourist destinations province-wide after the devastating May 12 earthquake — just in time for the National Day holiday season. Among the 17 destinations is Dujiangyan, one of the worst-hit cities in the province, and home to the collapsed Xinjian Primary School and Juyuan Middle School where many students and teachers were literally buried alive.

• Cara Anna of the AP reports police dragged away over 100 parents protesting outside the courthouse in Dujiangyan (都江堰) holding pictures of their children who died in the Sichuan earthquake:

  "Why?" some of them yelled. "Tell us something," they said as black-suited police wearing riot helmets yanked at them.

  Continue reading "After the earthquake, it's time to get harmonious again, people!"

                                                             

A powerful, evocative and sombre collection of photos taken by Shanghai-based Canadian photographer Chad Ingraham who has been spending time in Chengdu and Dujiangyan over the last few days.

The government has announced the start of a massive probe to find out why close to 7,000 schools classrooms have been destroyed and promised that anyone found responsible for shoddy construction will be severely punished. A great many of the casualties we've seen so far are students and teachers who were still in class when the quake struck.

UPDATE, 18:09 The first Japanese relief workers are expected to leave tonight. A group of 60 earthquake specialists together with sniffer dogs will head to Sichuan over the next few days. Meanwhile, the Chinese government has appealed for earth-moving equipment to aid rescue efforts in the region. Many relief workers are currently sifting through the rubble with their hands according to ABC News. The latest official death toll stands at 19,500 but is expected to rise sharply over the coming days.

Though reports are varied, it now appears that the current death from the Wenchuan earthquakes is somewhere between 17,000 and 20,000 (latter figure from the Time China Blog, although most of the media is still reporting the official count at a more conservative 15,000. It's still to0 early to say just how high that figure will climb once everything is said and done, but an earlier Time's estimate put that number at around 100,000 (their man Austin Ramzy is there right now). While we hope that this isn't the case, we can see why they would say that, because other sources put the amount of buried or missing at between 27,000 and a staggering 60,000, and time is running out to get these people out.

Treehugger: China earthquake threatens nearby dams, environment

In this video: A student of Xinjian Primary School (新建小学) at Dujiangyan (都江堰) rescued alive and in miraculously good shape, and the joys of reuniting with his parents. Great anguish and despair among the other parents who are growing increasingly impatient and demanding to see their children dead or alive.

Melissa Chan of Al-Jazeera is one of several foreign correspondents currently in Sichuan Province and files this story from Juyuan Middle School at Dujiangyan (都江堰) where Premier Wen Jiabao was earlier.