A week that we will never forget

Last week, a week after the earthquake is a week I think that all of us living here in China will never forget! Every day we see horrible pictures on TV where the army and rescueteams struggle to dig out as many people as possible.
We see pictures of schools that have caved in and a lot of small school children laying dead on the ground, side by side.
From time to time we see heroic rescuepeople dig out someone still alive after almost a week. We see crying mothers still looking for their children. We see small children that have lost all their family.
This pictures I belive will always be etched into our minds.

This pictures and text below was sent to me and others by my colleague Lilian. They are strong but I like to share them with You















I do not know how deep you know this disaster
But I know You will be deeply shocked

















I don't know how many towns were distroyed
But I know many people have lost their homes
















I don't know how this house look like before
But I know the old is not able to rebuild by himself















I don't know how many schools collapsed
But I know at that time many classrooms were full of students





















I don't know why here is a schoolbag
But I know it must belong to one child
















I don't know whether this mother saw her child still alive finally
But I know the child is the treasure of every family






















I don't know when was this child found already dead
But I know this mother already been crying here for a long time
















I don't know how many people are still under the ruins
But I know most of them will not survive
















I don't know under the ruins the hand belongs to a girl or boy
But I know the hands are eager to touch her or his parents again






















I don't know what the time is now
But I know it is a horrible time
















I don't know the exact reason why they embraced tightly
But I know there must be a reason





















I don't know what this man is looking for
But I know the possibility is quite low















I don't know why they are crying
But I know the tears is from their heart

















I don't know if this child can survive or not
But I know in her little heart there's already a deep slot

I don't know how long this man already been under the ruins
But I know he is already very lucky in the earth quake

I don't know what did the finger language means by this nurse
But I know it doesn't mean "victory"

I don't know where they are all marching to
But I know where they are coming from - home
















I don't know whether they can have a good sleep here or not
But I know they don't have any other choice just now

I don't know how many people that are here
But I know big trouble will happen if no water and food supply
















I don't know how this man have escaped from the collapse
But I know it is not an easy way now and in the future

I don't know what is the destination for them
But I know at this time only they can help themselves
















I don't know where here is
But I know this is not their home

I don't know whether these babies can realize the tough situation
But I know when they grow up thier parents (if they still have any) will tell them the story

I don't know what tey are thinking about
But I know in their mind there is still hope

Three days of national mourning

China on Monday began a three-day national mourning for the tens of thousands of people killed in a powerful earthquake which struck the country's southwest on May 12.
At 4:58 a.m., the national flag at the Tian'anmen Square in downtown Beijing flew at half-mast after a complete flag-raising ceremony.
All national flags was at half-mast at home and Chinese diplomatic missions abroad from Monday to Wednesday. Public recreational activities was halted during the mourning period.
At 2:28 p.m. Monday, China stood still for 3 minutes to mourn for the victims, while air raid sirens and horns of automobiles, trains and ships wailed in grief. It was quite impressive! Cars, trains, busses - all stop for 3 minutes and people stop in the streets bowing their heads in mourn.

Everyone thinking about the victims and their families. Also in the factory in Doumen where I was this Monday the production stopped and we all stood still for 3 minutes. It was very touching and difficult to have the eyes dry...

I get more and more respect for this country and it's people. When things like this happen they stand strong together supporting each other the best they can. Public donations to the victims of the earth quake have exceeded RMB 12 billion. In cases like this it is good to be a big country with many people.

The death toll from the massive quake is now over 80 000 nationwide and more than 250 000 are injured . And the sad thing is that they will both raise when the digging is continuing.

Earthquake in China

Rescue workers search for victims in debris in Dujiangyan, Southwest China's Sichuan Province on May 12, 2008. An earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale jolted nearby Wenchuan County at 14:28 Monday. [Xinhua]

Yesterdays earthquake in southern China was also noticeable here in Beijing. I was working at home yesterday and suddenly in the afternoon the doorbell rang and there was banging on the door. It was Security and reception people shouting: "Emergency, emergency - go out quick". So we got all evacuated into the garden and playground outside our apartments. I did not notice the quake but some people I spoke to living on the 27th floor said that the house was swaying quite a bit.
The epicenter of the earthquake, was in Sichuan Province the death tolls reported so far today exceeded 12,000.

Military doctors and soldiers have started to search for survivors and treat injured people at the Yinxiu County of Wenchuan, 20 kilometers from Dujiangyan city.
The road from Dujiangyan, a city northwest of the provincial capital Chengdu, to Wenchuan, the epicenter, was blocked by rocks and mud slides, holding up rescue, medical and other disaster relief teams. Sichuan provincial officials said more than one third of the buildings and houses in Wenchuan were leveled off. The casualties there remain unknown.

A boy is rescued from the debris of a collapsed building in Dujiangyan.

Soldiers from the Chengdu Military Command have chosen to walk to the areas with heaviest damage inflicted by the quake.
The 7.8-magnitude tremor devastated a region of small cities and towns set amid steep and forestry hills northwestern of Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu. Striking in mid-afternoon on Monday, it emptied office buildings across the country in Beijing and Shanghai and could be felt as far away as Vietnam and Thailand.

At least 4,800 people remained buried in Mianzhu, 60 miles (100 kilometers) from the epicenter, Xinhua said, citing local authorities. The casualty figures are expected to rise and remained uncertain due to the remote areas affected by the quake and difficulty in finding buried victims.
The killer quake toppled buildings, schools and chemical plants, trapping unknown numbers in mounds of concrete, steel, wooden frames, bricks and earth in China's worst earthquake in three decades.

Just in a few weeks this is the second nature disaster striking this part of the world. Trying to rescue people in Burma is still going on and now the world community have got another area where a lot of help also is needed.

What are we doing to the nature striking back to us in this way... ?????

Cleaning up the city

With the Olympics getting closer and closer "cleaning up" Beijing is done in many different ways, just not by fixing the street, planting flowers or painting bridges.
There are also many actions going on against "crime"of different sources. This week in TV and newspapers we have seen actions against the illegal taxis (heiche) and on Thursday the government office in charge of monitoring illegal taxis destroyed 313 vehicles (in front of a big media crowd) as part of a major campaign to crack down on illegal taxi drivers. The campaign has seen more than 1,000 vehicles destroyed in recent weeks. Authorities have also announced that if heiche drivers are caught a second time (the first time they simply get off with a warning), they risk serious consequences including fines and being detained by the police.

But it's not just the city's heiche drivers who are being subject to closer scrutiny, in an effort to clean up the city before August's Olympic Games, city authorities have also announced measures to clear the city of those small ads (xiao guanggao) that advertise everything from fake documents to various sex products, flight tickets, massage and are pasted on every surface throughout the city, from bus stops to footbridges. Authorities are offering a reward for 1 yao for every xiao guanggao that pepople scrape off and also rewards of up to 2,000 RMB for informing on people engaged in distributing the ads.
Police have also been cracking down on scalpers (seeling tickets of different kind with high profit) with plain clothes cops being deployed in force, not only at Good Luck Beijing sporting events, but also at the Jay Chou concert that took place at Gongti on May 1 - 130 police officers detained 30 scalpers at the concert.

So, in August we will have a cleaner Beijing - in many ways...

Business trip to Zhuhai

This week I have been on a business trip to Zhuhai in southern China together with one of our customers and two of my colleagues.

Located at the southern tip of the Pearl River Delta of Guangdong Province, Zhuhai is one of the five special economic zones in China. It faces Hong Kong in the east across the sea and joins Macau in the south.

In 1980, a special economic zone was established in Zhuhai. Today, the city has under its jurisdiction three districts, namely, Xiangzhou, Doumen (where are factory is situated), and Jinwan.
In recent years, Zhuhai has made progress in economic development owning to its advantageous geographical location near Hong Kong and Macao. Many foreign investments, advanced technologies and management methods stimulated the economic boom of Zhuhai.

It is quite a nice city with many parks and green areas, the climate this year is nice (just below +30) but the humidity in this area of China is a little bit too high for me.

Photo session

When you get married in China there should normally be a lot of wedding pictures takes for the "family album". Since we did just have a "quick" wedding in Hohot last May we did not do this but when now one of our sisters in law got married and made the album the thing was brought up again.

I was not that happy about the idea but finally agreed and yesterday it was time. Not overwhelmed - getting up six in the morning, driving 1,5 hour to the south part of Beijing. Finally arriving to the studio, next to "China World Park" (here are copies of all famous buildings from all over the world) it was a long time of waiting.
Shi Zhiting should get dressed and have make up but after more than one hour we went in to the park together with a photographer and his assistant.
After the first two shootings it actually started to be fun..... Our photographer, Yang Xing Jun, was very good at his work and also very funny.

Yang Xing Jun
Look at his stile....

We were shooting in many different placed in the park for several hours and after that changing clothes for inside pictures in the studio. A lot of make up and waiting again between every shooting (totally almost 200 pictures). Finished and back home 20:30 - both very tired.
We had a great day and hope to share some of the pictures here when vi collect the DVD in two weeks.