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.

Smoking law - up in smoke?

It was recently announced that from May 1 smoking will be completely banned in medical facilities, nurseries, kindergartens, educational institutions, cinemas, concert venues, museums, libraries, children’s play areas, buses, taxis, trains, train stations, tourist attractions, sports venues and, according to the official press release, all public areas across the city.















So, now there is a big discussion about what is "public areas". The law do not give any definition so it is up to the smokers to decide if it is a "public area" or not?Same thing with smoking in parks and Internet cates that will be "partly banned" - what parts?
Restaurateurs and bar owners, meanwhile, are allowed to implement the ban at their own discretion. However, it's unlikely that many venues will choose to do so.
Originally, the government had wanted Beijing restaurants and bars to dedicate over 70 percent of floor space to non-smokers.This never came to pass due to complaints that the law would lead to a decline in custom. It's well known that many Chinese enjoy a cigarette at mealtimes – little surprise considering China is home to around 25% percent of the world's estimated 1.3 billion smokers - smoking more than 30% of all cigarettes in the world.