In This Life: News and politics

Quake Deaths

Fri, 16 May 2008 18:33:37 GMT

The death toll from the 7.8-magnitude earthquake in southwest China's Sichuan Province rose to 22069 nationwide as of 2:00 p.m. Friday, while 168669 people were injured.

Altogether 21577 people were killed in Sichuan, close to 2000 up from Thursday, and 159006 were injured.

In Sichuan's neighboring regions, 364 were killed in Gansu, 109 in Shaanxi, 15 in Chongqing, 2 in Henan, one in Yunnan, and one in Hubei.

The earthquake destroyed or heavily damaged 436000 properties leading to 4.8 million homeless, according to official figures.

And the TV news said there were estimated to be totally more than 50000 deaths.

The rescue work is still keeping on. The death toll is still rising. We have no idea that how many people could survive.

"Saving lives is still our top priority, as long as hope of survival still exists," Premier Wen Jiabao said. He have tried everything he could to help his country and people. He has done his best.

Rescuers are still trying their best to find and save people. But hope is now running out of many trapped under tons of debris.

The earthquake and some other factors caused these deaths, even if many of them were kids. Let's pray for those who died from this disaster. And hope the injured people would get recovered soon.

Earthquake Measuring 7.8 Richter Scale Hits Southwest China

Mon, 12 May 2008 07:46:32 GMT

A major earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale jolted Wenchuan County, Sichuan Province at 2:28 p.m. Monday. A previous figure of 7.6 was revised by the State Seismological Bureau.

The epicenter of the quake was located 31.0 degrees north latitude and 103.4 degrees east longitude, the bureau said.

With a population of 111800, Wenchuan lies in the southeast part of the Tibetan-Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Aba, 146 km to the northwest of Chengdu, provincial capital of Sichuan Province.

The ground shook in Beijing, which is 1528 km from the epicenter. An earthquake measuring 3.9 on the Richter scale jolted Tongzhou District, Beijing at 2:35 p.m. Monday. Earthquake was felt in Beijing. And according to the reports, it was also felt in many other provinces of China.

In many cities, people rushed out of homes and offices and took to the streets.

Still no advanced news on deaths and injures. Pray for people who live in the epicenter.

A geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey said, "it was a very dangerous earthquake".

Premier Wen Jiabao has been on his way to the area to direct the rescue work.

Hope everything will be fine soon.

China Train Crash

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 11:45:37 GMT

Two passenger trains collided in eastern China's Shandong province Monday morning, killing at least 70 and injuring 420, the Xinhua said.

CCTV, China's state television station, said four French citizens were among the injured.

One train on its way from Beijing to Qingdao, a city in eastern China, derailed and crashed into a train which was traveling from the Shandong city of Yantai to Xuzhou in the eastern Jiangsu Province, according to a report by the state-run Xinhua news agency.

The wreck happened in the city of Zibo in Shandong Province at 4:43 a.m., the report said. Xinhua said the collision was the deadliest train accident in the country since 1997.

"It [the train] toppled 90 degrees to one side and then all the way to the other side," a passenger named Zhang was quoted in Xinhua. "When it finally went off the tracks, many people fell on me and hot water poured out of their thermos flasks."

Xinhua said investigators had ruled out terrorism as a cause of the crash. Its English report said it was human error, while its Chinese-language report attributed the crash to negligence. Human error was to blame for China's worst train accident in more than a decade, China's official news agency reported.

Additionally, one of the trains was traveling over its speed limit, Chinese authorities were quoted as saying in the official Xinhua News Agency.

~~_________________________~~

I didn't mean to put up this news here. After all, it's not good news. It's a piece of totally sad news.

Actually, I read this accident firstly from BBC. This afternoon, I was watching TV programs of BBC World channel. Suddenly, a piece of news titled China Train Crash came into my eyes. I couldn't believe my eyes at that moment. But when I watched the screen seriously, I found it's a fact. It really happened!

"Unbelievable! How could it happen?" I asked myself.

Luckily, and to my surprise, China's official media reported this accident in time. They didn't "conceal" those deaths and injures.

Someone or some one must be responsible for the accident. They may lose their positions. Or some may even be sent into jail. But who could really be responsible to people who were dead from the crash? Who could save their lives?

They lost their lives just because of this crash. Their families lost them just because of this crash.

What exactly resulted in this crash? Are human error and overspeed enough?

P.S. Trains are the most popular way to travel in China. The nation's rail network carried 1.36 billion passengers last year, according to The Associated Press. While accidents are rare, the government is trying to extend and upgrade the state-run rail network and introduce more high-speed trains.

Update -- The railway reopened to traffic at 2:16 a.m. Tuesday morning after more than 20 hours of interruption caused by the crash.

China's First Picture of the Moon Captured by Chang'e-1

Tue, 27 Nov 2007 14:28:23 GMT

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao unveiled the moon image captured by China's lunar orbiter Chang'e-1 during an unveiling ceremony at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center in Beijing, Nov. 26, 2007. China published the first picture of the moon captured by Chang'e-1 on Monday morning, marking the success of the country's first lunar probe project.

At the beginning of this month, I wrote an entry to comment on this lunar exploration program. Click here to read that entry -- Advantages & Disadvantages. I believe that advantages and disadvantages will take on as time passes by.

Let's wait for more surprises that Chang'e-1 will bring to the world.

Hu Jintao's Report at 17th Party Congress

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 16:40:32 GMT

The full text of Hu Jintao's report at 17th Party Congress has been published by Xinhua News Agency. According to this text, I created a pdf file. So this file is for reference only.

All the details please refer to the authoritative version.

Click here to download Hu Jintao's Report at 17th Party Congress.

China's 1st Lunar Probe Chang'e-1 Blasts off

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 16:04:02 GMT

The circumlunar satellite Chang'e-1 blasted off on a Long March3A carrier rocket at 6:05 p.m., Oct.24 from the No. 3 launching tower in the Xichang Satellite Launch Center of southwestern Sichuan Province.

The above photo shows a rendering picture of China's lunar orbiter Chang'e I.

China's New Top Leadership

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 16:34:08 GMT

Today Hu Jintao leads top CPC group to meet press.
Hu Jintao and four other members of the Political Bureau Standing Committee of the 16th CPC Central Committee have been reelected into the nine-member top echelon. And four new members enter China's top leadership.

Obviously, China won't change a lot in the next five years.

And the Hu-Wen era is still going on.

In China, people call this group "九大常委" -- nine-member Standing Comittee.

Hu Jintao (C), Wu Bangguo (4th R), Wen Jiabao (4th L), Jia Qinglin (3rd R), Li Changchun (3rd L),

Xi Jinping (2nd R), Li Keqiang (2nd L), He Guoqiang (1st R) and Zhou Yongkang (1st L), who are

members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the 17th Central Committee of the

Communist Party of China (CPC), meet the press at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on

Oct. 22, 2007.

National Flag Raising Ceremony

Mon, 01 Oct 2007 13:06:51 GMT

More than 100,000 people from across the country gathered at Tian'anmen Square

in Beijing to watch the national flag raising ceremony, on Oct. 1, 2007, the 58th

National Day of the People's Republic.

Peope were all looing forward to watching the national flag raising ceremony held

in drizzles at dawn of Monday, the 58th National Day of the People's Republic.

China to celebrate 58th National Day

Sun, 30 Sep 2007 19:13:39 GMT

Tian'anmen Square decorated for National Day