Society

Landslide tragedy casts pall over Shanghai Expo

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-08-13 14:23

SHANGHAI -- Yang Yaoci, 20, looks like any other student volunteers at the Shanghai World Expo as he guides visitors outside the China Pavilion.

But Yang had just lost seven relatives back in his hometown, Zhouqu County of northwest China's Gansu Province, which was hit by a massive landslide Sunday, leaving at least 1,144 people killed and 600 missing.

Yang, an ethnic Tibetan and a junior student, started working at the Expo Park with 1,160 other volunteers from Shanghai Institute of Electric Power Monday.

"I was almost blown away when I heard the news on TV after returning from a day's work at the Expo Park to my school dorm," Yang said.

He called home immediately, and his father told him his mother and little brother were all safe, but seven relatives, including his aunt and cousin were missing.

"I wanted to go home and help with the rescue work, but my father told me there was nothing I could do.

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"Dead people cannot be revived. I'll have to do work at the Expo and trust the rescuers to save my home," Yang said.

But during lunch break, his grief comes to the surface when he recalls his cousin who grew up with him. "A landslide is worse than an earthquake. There is a chance of survival in the crevices of rubble in an earthquake. But being buried alive by mud is another story."

Yang and his family survived the May 12 earthquake in 2008, which left more than 69,000 people dead and ravaged Zhouqu County.

Many buildings in Zhouqu were newly reconstructed with the aid of south China's Shenzhen City. Many of those buildings lie half buried in mud.

Yan Yiming, 20, a student volunteer from Shanghai Jiao Tong University at the Expo press center, printed about 100 stickers with "May Heaven Bless Zhouqu" in four Chinese characters and a picture she took of the city last month in the background.

Below the picture she wrote donation methods. During work breaks, Yan gives the stickers to other volunteers, nicknamed "cabbages" for their white-green uniform, so that they can wear them and spread the message.

"I couldn't believe my eyes when I first saw it on TV," said Yan, who had just returned from a volunteer teaching program in Zhouqu. "I saw the restaurant I used to eat at with my friends and students buried in mud."

Yan was having her day off from Expo in her dorm at 10 a.m. Sunday when she heard the news. She burst into tears and immediately called Liang Liang, a 15-year-old student she taught in Zhouqu No.1 Primary Middle School from July 10 to 22.

Yan kept messaging Liang Liang, her only student with a cell phone. Liang Liang told her the families of his two uncles were missing. "Another rainstorm is coming, I'm a little afraid and can't sleep," Liang Liang wrote in one of the messages.

Volunteers from different universities who had taught in Zhouqu together in the same teaching program are exchanging information on the status of their students in online communities like Xiaonei.com.

"I feel immense relief and happiness each time I learn a student was out of danger," Yan said. Five of her six students, who are all ethnic Tibetans, had been found. A girl remained out of touch.

"I can't imagine what could have happened to her," Yan said as she looked at the girl's picture. She had heard enough tragedies from other volunteer teams -- some students were dead, some lost parents, best friends or close relatives.

"Many visitors at the Expo don't know about the tragedy. Even if they do, most of them don't have such strong emotions as I do. I just want to tell more people Zhouqu is in need," Yan said.

The Expo's Gansu Pavilion Thursday suspended its entertainment activities until next month and sent its performers home, said a spokesman for the pavilion surnamed Wang.

"Some visitors have come to the pavilion to donate, but it is improper for us to accept their money," Wang said. He encouraged visitors to donate to the Red Cross Society of China.

At the exit of the Pavilion of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies lies a half-filled collection box. But the box and the pavilion have no words or pictures related to the landslide.

Foreign guests have offered support. Swiss President Doris Leuthard during her visit to the Expo Thursday expressed her condolences and said Switzerland was willing to contribute to the rescue.