That’s right. We had an earthquake. It occurred in a province called Sichuan, near Chengdu. The distance from where the earthquake hit and where I am is more than 1050 miles. Despite the distance, yes, the earthquake was felt in Shanghai. Many office buildings (aka skyscrapers) swayed in what appears to be a frightening manner (I daresay I would have peed my pants a little if I’d been on the 35th floor of a building and watched the city skyline sway in front of me). People were evacuated down many, many flights of stairs in this building. They all appear to be back in their buildings.
As for me, I was as oblivious as… well, as I am on a typical day. I work in a small building that has been under construction for the past two weeks. We work on the fourth floor of a six floor building. We noticed nothing. The only way we knew anything happened was when one of our clients apparently had their internet go out in Beijing, and told us he had just been through an earthquake. I immediately contacted one of my friends in Beijing to check if she was ok, all the while googling “Beijing Earthquake.” She responded with, “The earthquake was in Shanghai.” So then I started googling “Shanghai Earthquake.” Still nothing. Finally, (and thank god for Reuters’ speedy reporting) I got the info that the epicenter was in Sichuan, near Chengdu (one hopes all the pandas survived). The earthquake may or may not have caused another quake in Beijing along the lines of a 3.9. That has not been confirmed. Cities throughout Eastern Asia have been feeling the leftover tremors for the past couple hours. My little building must have its little foundation firmly planted in the ground.The good news is that, according to a co-worker, I am securely in the middle of a plate in Shanghai, so we’re not gonna be moving that much no matter what happens.
For more information: http://shanghaiist.com/2008/05/12/earthquake-hits-wenchuan-sichuan.php
Shanghaiist has been doing a great job of keeping up with the story.
The two bits of irony I found are:
Reuters: Sources said there was no immediate impact to the Three Gorges Dam project, the weight of whose massive reservoir, hundreds of kilometers from Chengdu, experts have said could increase the risk of tremors.
My words: And according to some rogue engineers the current of the Yangtze River is not quite fast enough to actually produce electricity from the turbines. Does that officially beat the Big Dig as dumbest construction project ever?
And the earthquake occurred pretty near the border of T*bet. In ancient times, natural disasters were seen as proof that the ruler no longer had the mandate of heaven. Generally a coup would occur after a large natural disaster and a new dynasty would take over. Now, I’m not saying the D*l*i L*m* is pulling some strings with a higher power, but that’s just so fucking ironic that Alanis Morissette needs a new version of her song.
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May 18, 2008 at 10:51 pm
[...] news this week was the earthquake in China. Yellow Journalism Done Wite was there, although quite a distance away from the epicenter. This one was big and could be felt [...]