most important 2 things right now in the news...

I am surrounded by two major thought right now while I am in China: 1) The May 12 earthquake that happened in Sichuan province, over 65,000 casualty, over 240,000 injured, majority of them have multiple broken bones, and some with amputated limps, which means that they are handicapped forever. 2) Aug BJ Olympics. You can’t ignore these two things if you are in china, every TV channel that you turn to, and everywhere you go, news comes up. People talk about this at the dinner table (which is where all my info comes…). You can’t escape. You cannot not thinking about it (=you have to think about it…).

These two days, while I am battling my jet legs, woke up at 7:30 every morning, I turned on the TV news, there are updates about the earthquake relief work. In case you haven’t hurt, this is a magnitude of 8.0 earthquakes, worst one in 30 years. 1976, there was a 7.6 magnitude one in Tangshan (ask every Chinese, and they can tell you about it), casualty 240,000. You might think this one is not as bad, maybe it’s because the modern communication technology, or may be the news are more transparent to the public, but this one seems to be much worse. I asked older friends why is that, they said the one in 1976 happened in the middle of the night, and only affect one city, despite the fact that they have more casualties. But this year, the earthquake is affecting a whole entire province, and because the location, rescue team couldn’t get in until 24 hours later (all the roads were blocked)…now it’s the 9th day, death toll is still increasing. I feel deeply sorrow for the lost lives. I am not affected by the disaster, but since I am in China, I am surrounded by the information, tons of information and pictures every day. This is a special time in China. It probably will take the Chinese people a long time to recovery. Everyone is optimistic about it, nowadays, everyone’s greeting has changed to “Have you donated yet?” most people have donated more than once. Students, elderlies, men and women, different kind of occupations, this is the first time I have seen chinese people have been so united, and so powerful. I am happy to see Chinese from the world are working together, to accomplish one goal, one dream. I want to say, we never were so united like today. I may be a little brain washed by the news media, I may be a little bit too optmistic, but right now it’s a good time to see China. I have talked to my friend about Tibet issues, they asked how can foreign media questions about this. To them (Chinese), Tibet and Taiwan has always been part of the Chinese map. This is a very sensitive topic, there are many answers, save one for yourself. ^^

Pictures:
Earthquake (warning: some pic can be bloody, rated R, so be careful when you viewing it)
http://www.slide.com/r/0Plem63crD_gJW_FtKQIZ2XTfbBgg1ae?previous_view=lt_embedded_url
more random pictures (SWAT training, and food)
http://www.slide.com/r/EGVyPkiY0z-SGUroduJtkl2j0kHyWd4F?previous_view=lt_embedded_url

I can't really view my blog because the Chinese firewall...but I heard that there's a way to get around...I will continue explore that route...until further notice, please feel free to e-mail me (hanlinysong@gmail.com) your comments~

5/21 first day in China!

first day in BJ

Howdy!! Ya'll:

Thanks for coming to my blog! I was hoping that I can keep up this blog at least for this summer, and all my friends overseas can stay updated with my travelling (and be jealous...) and see the real China (and maybe a little bit of Korea and Japan in June and July) through my camera.

So this is the first time I fly with Air China ( the official Chinese airline) in a long time. I left on Monday night (US time) and arrived early morning on Wed (BJ time), so converted into US time, it will be Tuesday night...It is a little bit tough to fight the jet legs because I had to stay awake the whole day and hoping that I sleep well tonight, and wake up 8 o'clock in the morning without any toss and turn. The route as you can see from the picture, we flew over AK (Alaska...I hope I got the state name right), I know it is a very blurry picture...but you got the idea...I was fortunate to see the new BJ terminal, this terminal is specifically built for the 2008 Olympics...Thanks to the Olympics, there are SO MANY new infrastructures build just for the olympics...this terminal is one of them. It IS HUGE!! I mean humongous, it took me 15 minutes to walk from where my plane is to the train station...and at least 5 minutes more train ride to reach from one side of the terminal to the other...the new terminal is magnificent, they used the typical gold to cover the ceiling. Gold in the ancient time was only used in the emperor's temple/palace, if you look at the forbidden city, they don't use "gold" metal, but a color that is very yellow...

Since my plane arrived 30 min early, and no-one is awake in the airport 5am (unless they have to work...) It was a very smooth walk from the custom to the exit gate...but my ride wasn't there!!! He was not going to be here until 6:30a~ and I dont have any phone!!! a little freaked out there, but I found some young men at other gates (they are probably staff at the airport), and they were kind enough to let me borrow their cell phone to call. If you are interested at investing foreign fund, ChinaMobile can be a good one...everyone including trash picker (and most likely beggers) and their family have at least one cellphone on hand.

I am still expereincing the new blog and the way they upload pictures...so bear with me...I will try to update this every other day~ there are just too many stories to tell and too many pictures to show~ So stay in tone and come back couple times a week! I hope to see your smily comments in my guest book! Come back soon!