Sichuan: Video from aftershock epicenter

Reporting by Mandarin service reporter Lin Di
Tr. Luisetta Mudie

PINGWU COUNTY, Sichuan–The dusty road from Jiangyou city to Pingtong township is obstructed at every turn by hooting traffic and fallen lumps of concrete. Five kilometers from the worst-hit area, buses are forced to halt and their passengers begin to walk towards the scene of the latest tragedy, in which casualties include many children.

Sichuan: Video and interviews from Dujiangyan

RFA Mandarin service Hong Kong-based reporter Lin Di reports from Dujiangyan, Sichuan province:

These forces are specialists in getting people out from under collapsed building, this officer says. They are usually stationed in Yunnan. They have been in Dujiangyan for three days.  “There are forces here from Sichuan, Yunnan, and many other provinces,” he says. The bright lights are running off generators; they brought them along with them. There is no power at all in the city; only vehicle headlights.

In Dujiangyan, the stench of dead bodies fills the air. Most people here are wearing masks. I clamber over the rubble of a collapsed building that must have been four or five-storeys high. A rescue worker tells me that there are still more than a dozen bodies buried underneath the debris.  “We checked,” he says. “They are all dead.”

Chongqing: Many aftershocks reported from quake

Mandarin service reporter Lin Di arrived in Chongqing on Tuesday, the day after the earthquake. Even though the authorities said that the airport in Chengdu was supposed to be open, several flights going there were delayed and eventually cancelled. Lin Di had to rebook a flight for Chongqing instead. He arrived in Chongqing in the middle of the night on Tuesday. According to local authorities, as of 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, May 13, in Chongqing, 11 people have died in the earthquake and 34 people sustained serious injuries, 118,000 people have been evacuated, and more than two million people in the city have been affected.

Sichuan: Parents wait outside collapsed high school

Video: Two students in a dormitory room at the University of Chengdu, the provincial capital of Sichuan, record their experience during the quake and post it to Tudou.com, a Chinese equivalent of YouTube. It is later reposted on YouTube.

A resident of Dujiangyan who helped to rescue people caught in the collapse of a secondary school building said. “The building is three storeys high, with 18 classrooms. All of the sudden the building collapsed. Many people have died. The People’s Liberation Army are rescuing those trapped under the rubble. Such a terrible tragedy. Many parents are having to wait here for news.”

China, Tibet: Tibetans cut off by quake

From Mandarin service reporter Qiao Long:

The Tibetan government-in-exile completely lost contact with Tibetans living in Ngaba, Gansu (in Chinese, Aba) after the earthquake, without any news emerging about the situation in local monasteries and nunneries. Ge Sang, an officer with the exiled government said: “We completely lost contact with them. As communications have been paralyzed, there isn’t any information coming from there.”

The earthquake has captured the attention of Tibetan monks in China. Monks at the Drepung monastery in Lhasa are planning a prayer ritual on Wednesday to pray for peace for people in the tremor-hit areas.

China: Quake aftermath in Sichuan

China’s official media now say the earthquake death toll in Sichuan province has topped 12,000 and could surge higher.

The vice governor of the southwestern province, Li Chengyun, said the death toll was based on incomplete figures as of Tuesday afternoon. He said 26,206 people were injured, up to 3.5 million homes destroyed, and more than 12,000 were had been killed. Tens of thousands remain unreachable and unaccounted for.

This report is from Yingxiu township in Sichuan, by RFA Mandarin service reporter Yan Xiu:

China: Interview with released journalist Ching Cheong

From RFA Mandarin reporter Xin Yu:

Q: Mr. Ching, we learned that after you returned to Hong Kong, you are still working as a journalist for the Strait Times of Singapore. What do you feel about it?

A: I feel happy and am in high mood because I have been a journalist for my whole life.  Now I’ve got the opportunity to resume my old profession, I am happy.

Tibet, China: Dialogue is crucial, says lama

This is a continuation of an RFA Mandarin service report from Wei Si:

The monks in the lamasery in Daofu county, Sichuan province, also tell us that a group of reporters arrived a few days ago, but were turned away by Chinese security forces who were guarding the gates. Such incidents have become commonplace since the Tibetan anti-Chinese protests which began on March the 14th in Lhasa, they say.

Tibet, China: Monks want Dalai Lama to come home

This report was filed for RFA’s Mandarin service, at considerable risk to the reporter, Wei Si:

It’s a journey of about 400 kilometres along highway from Kangding to Ganzi, in China’s southwestern province of Sichuan. The road is liberally dotted with Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and temples.

Bao Tong: On Beijing’s decision to talk to the Dalai Lama

On the decision by central government to have contact and discussions with the Dalai Lama

by Bao Tong

In the face of a major social upheaval, there are generally two roads to take. One is dialogue, and the other is opposition. Dialogue can lead to reconciliation, whereas opposition inevitably results in an exacerbation of the conflict. Whichever path we take depends on the ultimate aims of those making the decisions.