Results tagged “earthquake”

Today marks the 33rd anniversary of the Great Tangshan Earthquake, believed to be the largest earthquake disaster of the 20th century thanks to its immense death toll. The earthquake hit very early in the morning, at 3:42am, which contributed to its extreme deadliness. Chinese official sources stated that it measured a 7.8 on the Richter scale. It was then followed by a 7.8 magnitude aftershock about 16 hours later.

An earthquake measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale hit Yunnan Province's Guantun township, Yao'an County (姚安) in the mountainous Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture at 7:19 p.m. Thursday. The epicenter was about 200 kilometers from the provincial capital Kunming. Various news agencies are reporting more than 300 injuries and 10,000 collapsed homes. No deaths have been reported yet. News from this remote area is coming in slowly — CNN is just now calling the 12-hour-old earthquake "Breaking News" — so it is difficult to gauge the severity of the earthquake at this moment. Stay tuned.

As Shanghai prepares for the 2010 World Expo at a frighteningly fast pace, one aspect of urban development is being overlooked: emergency shelters. Currently, should any sort of natural disaster befall the city, Shanghai's almost 19 million citizens would have only one (still unfinished) public emergency shelter to turn to.

The next Shanghaiist Happy Hour at Cotton's on Xinhua Lu falls on the one-year anniversary of the devastating Sichuan earthquake, so we have decided to team with Hands On Chengdu, an organization committed to supporting the long term redevelopment of the areas affected by the earthquake for this Tuesday's gathering. Entry to the Happy Hour is free, but we'll be holding a lucky draw with some great donated prizes — all proceeds will go to Hands On Chengdu. Hands On Chengdu will have an informational booth at the happy hour and will be accepting donations and signing up volunteers on site.

• China cracks down on foreign journalists [FT.com Video] "Foreign journalists trying to conduct interviews in the Sichuan earthquake zone in western China are being attacked and detained as Beijing ratchets up security in preparation for the first anniversary of the devastating quake on May 12. Jamil Anderlini, FT Beijing correspondent, traveled to Sichuan and was the target of such attacks. He reports on how officials used violence and threats to suppress his coverage."
• From gold farmers to kings: online gaming in china [US China Today] "Apparently the virtual world has not been hit by the financial crisis. In early April, Changyou, the online gaming division of the popular Chinese portal site Sohu.com, had its initial public offering on the Nasdaq exchange. The stock jumped 25% by the day’s end, raising over US$128 million in company proceeds."
• Love, lust and time to party as hotel 'captives' scent freedom [SCMP] "Dozens of people partied in the lobby of the quarantined Metropark Hotel in Wan Chai last night to celebrate their impending release today, as guests told tales of love, lust and laughter from the week-long internment. Sheets that had covered the windows of the locked-down hotel for days were ripped down amid the festivities, revealing smiling guests raising glasses of wine, beer and other liquor and kissing one another."

If you're in China, you probably won't be able to watch the HBO documentary "China's Unnatural Disaster" which chronicles the aftermath of the Sichuan Quake from the perspective of the grieving parents.

Next week marks the first anniversary of the Great Sichuan Earthquake, which flattened entire towns in the province on May 12th last year. To try to ensure that next week passes harmoniously, local police in Chengdu have already started rounding up foreign reporters who might want to interview parents who lost their children in the quake.

• The fortunate lives of reunited Beichuan Earthquake families [QQ News] A series of photos on the Chinese web of 20 or so families that are now living, reunited and happy, in Sichuan province a year after the devastating earthquake hit.
• Year After China Quake, New Births, Old Wounds [NYTimes] "One year after the earthquake in Sichuan Province killed about 70,000 people and left 18,000 missing, mothers across the region are pregnant or giving birth again, aided by government medical teams dispensing fertility advice and doing reverse-sterilization procedures. Because of China’s policy limiting most families to having one child, the students who died were often their parents’ only offspring. Officials say they hope a wave of births will help defuse the anger that many grieving parents harbor over the collapses of so many schools on May 12, 2008, while nearby buildings often remained standing."
• Report: 10 Worst Countries to be a Blogger [Committee to Protect Journalists] "Relying on a mix of detentions, regulations, and intimidation, authorities in Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Egypt have emerged as the leading online oppressors in the Middle East and North Africa. China and Vietnam, where burgeoning blogging cultures have encountered extensive monitoring and restriction, are among Asia’s worst blogging nations. Cuba and Turkmenistan, nations where Internet access is heavily restricted, round out the dishonor roll."

• Common sense reigns as IOC ends worldwide torch relay [Yahoo! Sports] "The International Olympic Committee decided to end the globetrotting torch relay, discontinuing an event that began with the Athens Games in 2004 and was used again by the organizers of the Beijing Games this past August. For future games, the torch will only tour the country where the games are being hosted."
• China News: Ai Weiwei: Q&A On Earthquake Toll Accounting Efforts [China Digital Times (CDT)] "Artist, activist, and blogger Ai Weiwei is leading an effort to publish the names of those who died in the May 12 Sichuan earthquake. The action has invited responses from around the globe — and questions from those most nearby, in China. Netizens asked Ai questions ranging from his thoughts on tofu dregs construction to his feelings regarding social responsibility. Ai has responded to dozens of questions found on the posts entitled “做客天涯 (一)” and “做客天涯 (二).” Below is a selection of five of these questions and responses. Translated by CDT." (Blocked in China)
• Analysts dismiss 'cyber spy' claims [China Daily] "Top analysts yesterday refuted claims by researchers hired by the Dalai Lama that China runs a cyper spy network, branding them "exaggerated" and an attempt to paint the nation as a "threat". "This is purely another political issue that the West is trying to exaggerate," said Song Xiaojun, a Beijing-based strategy and military analyst."

Disaster tourism is nothing new, but we still cringe a little hearing news that some of the ruins left by last year's Sichuan earthquake will be opening up to visitors later this month.

Netease has released a "Top Ten Musical Singles" list, compiled from the data generated from its 200 million or so Chinese users. So what have the Chinese been listening to a lot this year? Unsurprisingly, Beijing Olympics songs, Sichuan Earthquake songs and... Jay Chou. In fact, he was so popular that his album, Capricorn, mysteriously took 7th place on a list of "singles."

Several scientists in China and the U.S. are claiming that the Sichuan Earthquake, which had a magnitude of 7.9 and killed at least 70,000 people, could have been caused by a 511ft-high dam just 550 yards from the fault line.

"The Rixin neighbourhood committee in the city's north-east has begun a campaign to discourage residents' longstanding habit of wearing pyjamas out of their bedrooms and on the streets...'We're telling people not to wear pyjamas in the street because it looks very uncivilised,' community official Guo Xilin was quoted as saying."

Of the more than 500 children who lost their parents in the May 12th earthquake, only two have been adopted, the Washington Post reports. According to China Daily, however, only one child has been adopted. As many as 88 children are in temporary care, while the rest have moved in with relatives. Despite the earlier outpouring of grief and adoption enquiries after the earthquake, many of the children are unable to find adoptive parents because they are over 10 years of age and handicapped.

Yesterday we heard that authorities in Sichuan were offering hush money to parents who lost children in the May earthquake. The story has been circulating widely, and more details about the government’s attempts to placate parents have come to the fore. Not only are officials apparently going door to door offering pay outs of around 60,000 RMB, they’re sweetening the deal by adding more incentives to keep up the harmonious front. The list includes pensions, free life insurance and relaxing the one child policy to allow parents of children disabled by collapsing schools to have another baby.

Earthquakes with magnitudes of 4.8 and 5.5 hit Sichuan yesterday afternoon after an early morning tremor struck the region. The first counts report the quakes left at least one dead, 17 injured and 360 homes flattened. The tremors are just the latest in the string of over 12,000 aftershocks the region has suffered following the May 12 disaster, 25 of which have measured greater than 5.0 on the Richter scale, classifying them as moderate quakes capable of major damage in discrete regions.

An earthquake measuring a moderate 5.5 on the Richter scale struck southwest China just before four a.m. this morning, hitting the area 48 kilometers northwest of Guangyuan that was devastated by May's massive quake. Unlike this spring's 8.0-magnitude disaster, there are no reports yet of major damage or casualties. [Source]

The first post-earthquake panda birth took place Sunday when twelve-year-old Guo Guo gave birth to twins at the Bifengxia Giant Panda Base outside Chengdu. Guo Guo was one of 63 pandas moved from the Wolong Nature Reserve to other facilities after the quake caused the death of one panda and damage to the reserve, endangering the province’s 1,800 pandas.

ABC News: Athletes banned from Beijing opening ceremony

Fiery episode of 《针锋相对》on Phoenix TV hosted by Hu Yihu (胡一虎) discussing whether Fan Meizhong (范美忠), teacher at the Guangya School in Dujiangyan, was "morally corrupt" for being the first to run away when the earthquake struck (If you missed this story earlier, read this backgrounder by Danwei). Unfortunately, we won't be able to translate everything said in these four videos, but a few things are worth pointing out. First, Fan starts by saying that unlike most of his Chinese compatriots, he did not see the teacher's job as "sacred" (神圣) and that his vocation was just one among many, and that his responsibility was to impart knowledge and wisdom, not to sacrifice his life for his students. In the days following the earthquake, Fan was pilloried online by netizens for some of the things he said, but also many quotations (including those shown on a board in the studio) were wrongly attributed to him. Fan reiterates what he said on his blog by admitting his own weakness saying he too was made of flesh and blood, and when the earthquake struck the only thing he could think of was his own safety first. For that Fan maintains that he broke no law, and whether his actions made him "morally corrupt" was not for anyone to decide. Former military man and social commentator Guo Songmin (郭松民) lambasts Fan, saying, "Even animals know how to save their offspring. I have never met such a shameless man in my life," to which Fan cooly retorts, "I am happy such a morally upright man exists in China today. If everyone were like him, I'm sure all of China's corruption problems, tofu construction projects, etc would be solved very easily." Fan also adds that sacrificing one's life for his students was over and above what one should expect of a teacher, but not "minimum moral responsibility" (底线道德).

It's perfect BBQ weather! As we're sure you've all heard, tonight's the night for the Shanghaiist Benefit for Sichuan’s Earthquake Victims at Sasha's. Word travels fast in Shanghai and some people have received the benefit announcement from five different sources!

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

Film star Jackie Chan has donated RMB10million to help those in need following the earthquake in Sichuan province. Other celebrities have also dipped into their wallets. From CriEnglish:

"Jackie Chan also sent his consolation to the quake victims and encouraged them to hold on as "people all over the country are with you," the star said.

Continue reading "Celebrity Power: Jackie Chan and Li Yuchun"

We know that many of you have been affected by the tragic aftermath of this week's devastating earthquake in Wenchuan and are looking for ways to help the victims, so here is your chance to immediately get involved. We received word from ShanghaiExpat that the blood mobile will be out today in front of the Shanghai Exhibition Center opposite the Portman Hotel (a.k.a. the Shanghai Center). Those interested in donating blood have been instructed to make an appointment with Shanghai United Family Hospital by calling 5133-1968.

As reported earlier, the epicenter of the Sichuan earthquake was not only near the city of Wenchuan, but it was also very close to the Wolong Panda Reserve. Xinhua informed us that some pandas at other facilities were safe, but the status of the Wolong pandas was still known.