China Earthquake Links

Panoramic photograph made from multiple shots from the middle of Beichuan after the earthquake in China's Sichuan province. Photograph: Dan Chung/Guardian


Deadly aftershock jolts Sichuan as mourning begins

1,000 hurt and three killed on eve of nationwide silence to start three days of recognition of disaster victims.
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China begins mourning as toll mounts

China on Monday began three days of national mourning as the death toll from last week's devastating earthquake mounted and rescue workers continued to search for survivors among the rubble.
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Survival of quake victims depends on many factors

A nurse survived eight days in the wreckage of a Turkish hospital destroyed by an earthquake in 1992. A newborn was rescued after more than a week in the rubble of Mexico City's 1985 quake. Now, in China, rescuers are pulling out victims days after they were buried by a powerful earthquake.
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China allows bloggers to spread quake news

Almost nonstop, the uncensored opinions of Chinese citizens are popping up online, sent by text and instant message across a country shaken by its worst earthquake in three decades.
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China bloggers cook up quake conspiracies

Broadband connections across the country are pulsing with rumours of "earthquake omens" involving toads or butterflies - all allegedly ignored by the authorities. Some even talk of a vast pre-Olympic conspiracy.
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In Rubble, Couple Clung to Each Other, and to Life

At the moment of greatest despair, Wang Zhijun tried to kill himself by twisting his neck against the debris.

Breathing had become harder as day turned to night. The chunks of brick and concrete that had buried him and his wife were pressing tighter by the hour, crushing them. Their bodies had gone numb.
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NPR audio:

Chinese Still in Danger from Flooding, Landslides

Following Monday's devastating earthquake, the Chinese government says it expects the final number of dead to surpass 50,000. On Sunday an aftershock rattled buildings and sent people into the street and a nearby dam is in danger of collapsing. Officials released water from dams and reservoirs to reduce danger of flooding and landslides.
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Chinese Volunteers Set New Precedent

Chinese citizens from across the country have been organizing food convoys, setting up blood drives and raising money for the victims of the earthquake that hit last Monday. While this sort of reaction may not be unusual in the West, China has little tradition of civil society.
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Small Miracles Rise from Earthquake's Rubble

NPR's Melissa Block was in Chengdu, China when the earthquake hit last Monday. She and her All Things Considered co-host Robert Siegel were there, preparing for a week-long series of reports from Chengdu they had been planning for months. That coverage will begin tomorrow on All Things Considered, their stories, obviously, radically transformed. Now, Block offers this Reporter's Notebook.
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