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Please Help Earthquake Victims in China!

On the afternoon of May 12, 2008, an earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale hit Sichuan Province, a mountainous region in Western China. By the next day, the death toll stood at 12,000, with another 18,000 still missing. Over 15 million people live in the affected area, including almost 4 million in the city of Chengdu. Nearly 2,000 of the dead were students and teachers caught in schools that collapsed.

Since the Tangshan earthquake in 1976, which killed over 240,000 people, China has required that new structures withstand major quakes. But the collapse of schools, hospitals and factories in several different areas around Sichuan may raise questions about how rigorously such codes have been enforced during China’s recent, epic building boom. (The New York Times)

The 2008 Sichuan earthquake occurred at 14:28:01.42 CST (06:28:01.42 UTC) on 12 May 2008, with its epicenter in Wenchuan County (Chinese: 汶川县; Pinyin: Wènchuān Xiàn), Sichuan province of the People's Republic of China. It had a magnitude of 7.8 Ms according to the State Seismological Bureau of China and 7.9 Mw according to the United States Geological Survey. The epicenter was 90 kilometres (55 miles) west-northwest of Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan, with a depth of 19 kilometres (12 mi). The earthquake was felt as far away as Beijing and Shanghai, where office buildings swayed with the tremor. The earthquake was also felt in Pakistan, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Official figures (as of May 14) state that 14,866 are confirmed dead, while the Xinhua news agency reported that 19,565 (including 7,700 in Yingxiu near the epicenter) are dead and 26,206 injured. Thousands are missing, many of them buried, and eight provinces were affected. These figures are likely to rise sharply, as a clearer picture emerges. It was the deadliest and strongest earthquake to hit China since the 1976 Tangshan earthquake, which killed approximately 250,000 people. (Wikipedia.org)

More News:

Visit The New York Times "Earthquake in China" Website

Visit "2008 Sichuan Earthquake" Wikipedia Website

Students Beneath a Collapsed School

"Heaven collapses and the ground caves in,
Totally destroying the beautiful earth.
Broken walls, shattered ramparts,
Have pierced through the flower-like years of people's lives.

Clothes stained by blood,
Have heated up my two eyes,
Pearls of tears fall down non-stop.
A line that cannot be cut apart.

The calamity, the disaster amidst the districts and villages.
Fear and sorrow, pass through the entire body, from the mind to the fingertips,
A sensation of agony in every limb.

In the blink of an eye,
My yearning for my ancestral homeland and village,
Becomes overwhelming, overflowing.

A small solace,
Is that I'm actually not too distant from you.
Even if we are separated by thousands of crags and rapids,
With but a few words,
I can arrive by your side,
Fording the river with you,
Crossing the mountains with you,
And stepping through one ditch and gutter after another, by your side.

Though the wind rushes and the waves coil up,
They cannot sink this ship of our intertwined hearts.
Internal turmoil, foreign aggression; neither can collapse the united, impregnable will of our people and homeland.
This is true; this is genuine; this is the sound of our calling out to you.
This is birth of sincerity and understanding,
This is the fountainhead of love and assistance.

It will be hard to sleep tonight.
Light a candle in prayer for the dead.
It will be hard to sleep tonight.
Pray for the health of those who survived.
It will be hard to sleep tonight.
Pray that those who are missing will be there by the morrow of the morrow of the morrow.

It will be hard to sleep tonight.

In memory of the 2008-05-12 earthquake."

Zhangsan | May 14, 2008 (time-blog.com)

Please Help Earthquake Victims in China!

For those who are looking to contribute to current aid efforts underway, you can now donate money to the Red Cross Society of China which has formed a disaster relief working group to be dispatched to the earthquake-stricken Wenchuan County in Sichuan.

They have also published an emergency relief hotline, along with bank account information to receive donations to assist their cause:

USD Account:

Account NO.: 7112111482600000209
Account Name: China Red Cross
Swift Code：CIBKCNBJ100
Bank Name: China CITIC Bank Beijing
Jiuxianqiao Sub-Branch
Address: C&W Tower. No.14, Jiuxianqiao Street, Chaoyang District，Beijing, China
Zip Code: 100016

TEL:86-10-64319780

RMB Account:

Account No.: 0200001009014413252
Account Name: China Red Cross
Swift Code: ICBKCNBJBJM
Bank Name: ICBC Beijing Municipal Branch
Dong Si Nan Sub-Branch
Address: No.147 Dongsi South St, Beijing, China
Zip Code: 100010

You can visit Red Cross China ( http://redcross.org.cn/ ) for more information.Hotline: (8610) 65139999
Online donations: Red Cross Society of China website: www.redcross.org.cn
Click the tab for online donations

Comments
9	Written by sykun01 on 2008-06-15 03:09:30 加油！谢谢！
8	terrible Written by reader on 2008-06-02 01:55:06 Bir etkili yikimdir...
7	Written by pray on 2008-05-30 04:00:54
6	Get well soon:( Written by onur on 2008-05-29 07:46:47 We,TURKİSH,were so upset as soon as it was appeared on TV(
5	Written by Tony Tien on 2008-05-20 16:39:38 thank you very much for everyone who help our Chinese people! thank you very much!
4	谢谢 Written by 龚瑞琪 on 2008-05-19 18:09:43 你们帮助中国人民，中国人民感谢你们~！
3	13863371560 Written by I am sorry to hear that!! It on 2008-05-17 23:55:38
2	Written by DANNY on 2008-05-17 20:26:10
1	CRY Written by CSJ on 2008-05-15 04:21:06

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