The road through the earthquake area (Sichuan Province, China)

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(Day 127 on the road)From Chengdu, we took the bus north, skimming the outskirts of the recent earthquake here in Sichuan. The road up north had just reopened about a week ago for foreigners, and even though the road the bus was taking was far to the east of the epicentre of the quake (the normal and much faster route going north went right through the earthquake region and was still closed for all traffic), the evidence of the destruction was almost omnipresent: Collapsed houses and bridges, rubble and rubbish, temporary tents and shelters, and of course the army.

What was quite strange however was that on the whole twelve hour journey to the the national park of Jiuzhaigou (where we were heading), we never saw anyone actually doing anything to repair the damage caused by the quake. We saw a lot of soldiers parading the streets carrying bright red Chinese flags, and we also saw them washing and polishing their army trucks (no joke!), but we never saw a single soldier actually doing anything to combat the damages from the earthquake. Also, the residents themselves didn't seem to bother either: We saw so many of them just sitting on little stools by the road, or standing in pairs near the road chatting. It was almost a surreal experience: Driving through this damaged landscape with many capable people around, but no one doing anything. Strange...

Before setting of on this trip, I had read a newspaper article about a Chinese guy who had been arrested and taken away because he was doing some private investigation into the earthquake. As many other people in the area, this guy had noticed that, compared to other buildings, especially schools had collapsed in the earthquake, killing proportionally more children than other people. He found out that many schools had been built very poorly due to money that should have been spent on building proper schools being wasted in corruption. So the money never reached the schools, and thus they had to be constructed with poorer quality, causing them to collapse very easy in the earthquake. And the guy for told the authorities about this got arrested in the middle of the night.

Next stop: Jiuzhaigou National Park (Sichuan Province, China).



To view my photos, have a look at pictures.beiske.com. And to read the full account of my journey, have a look at the complete book about my trip at Amazon (and most other online book shops).

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Comments

[TravelChina]

earthquake relief
fyi, the reason why they haven't started rebuilding the towns is that the government is choosing new sites to rebuild them. Some severely damaged villages and towns will just be abandoned. Another concern is the frequent aftershock. they just had another 4.5 aftershock last week...

[LivingTheDream]

3 months to choose where to rebuild?
Hey TravelChina, the earthquake was in May and I visited the area in August - and they had not started any work. Seems like a bit of a long time (3 months!) to "choose" what to rebuild and what not... So sorry, but I don`t quite believe that. Are you by any chance part of the 50-cent army, trying to make China look good on blogs?

[bazza]

of course he is!
One of the most irritating things about the Chinese government and their 50 cent army is that they think the world is as gullible and easy to fool as their own people. Travelchina, I can spot the mistakes in your English that only a Chinese person would make. Also, your tired line of response is the familiar pattern of a Chinese person making excuses for their criminal government. China drives me crazy.