More news (sort of)

Wow, I have been reading articles and watching the news very closely about this. I am just stunned. I don't think I realized how bad it actually was, and from what I am reading, it is only going to get worse.

We have not heard anything from Troika about the status of our tour. I have also not heard anything about any tours that may be over there now, or that were to leave soon (such as Cinderella). I know that our first couple of cities are within a close enough distance to the destruction that it could potentially cause an issue with our return on June 7/8. But I am hesitant to speculate because we haven't been told anything. So for now, I will believe that we are going back as planned.

Of course, I will post news as we hear, but for now, I just don't know. The joy that should be there for our return is not there right now.

Here are some more news articles. There is an article on a panda reserve, but I have not heard of this one, we went to the Chengdu panda reserve, which I am guesing is significantly smaller than this one in the article.

I haven't heard from any of our friends in China from Chengdu or Chongqing (while news stories were presented from Wuhan, I don't think Wuhan was affected at all).

Hopefully everyone is ok. China, you are definitely in my thoughts today.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24613827 young female survivor

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24604692/ school children

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24588082/ school children

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24583648/ "big year" not so big

http://www.newsweek.com/id/136722 article on lax building codes

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24609645/ damage control

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24595436/ panda reserve

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24578006/displaymode/1107/s/2/framenumber/1/ photos


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Update:

Again, I hesitate to mention this because I can't find enough to understand what this comment means, but it seems as though some scientists knew the quake was coming. the sites i have found have been in chinese, so i can't read them.

it also seems as though the chengdu panda reserve is ok too.

I did also read that Xian, one of our first cities back, has lost all cell phone capabilities, the entire system is down. but i haven't heard anything else in regards to how the city fared.

http://shanghaiist.com/tags/earthquake2008
http://shanghaiist.com/2008/05/12/earthquake-hits-wenchuan-sichuan.php

http://www.chabad.org/news/article_cdo/aid/672358/jewish/Earthquake-Epicenter-a-Popular-Hangout-for-Israelis.htm
epicenter is popular chabad hangout

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/13/world/asia/13china.html?_r=2&bl&ex=1210737600&en=949dc013156ba36c&ei=5087%0A&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
NY times article

http://news.search.yahoo.com/search/news?ei=UTF-8&p=China+earthquake&datesort=1&fr=ush-news&c=images
thousands of photos

http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-33547820080513
chengdu pandas ok