Houston Community News >> China Starts National Mourning for Quake Victims
5/19/2008-- From tent cities in stricken
Sichuan province to Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, sirens wailed and
millions of Chinese stood for three minutes on Monday to mourn tens of
thousands who died in last week’s earthquake.
The moment of grief was observed across the vast country of 1.3 billion people at 2:28 p.m., exactly a week after the 7.9 magnitude quake that ravaged the southwestern province.
“I think the three minutes was important because it means that everyone, from the central government down to every individual, is thinking of us. Because this is worse than a war,” said He Ling, a policeman in Pingtong town, which was almost totally wrecked by the earthquake. Even as the rescuers stopped work, another aftershock rattled the area and set off a small landslide from a nearby cliff.
The moment of grief was observed across the vast country of 1.3 billion people at 2:28 p.m., exactly a week after the 7.9 magnitude quake that ravaged the southwestern province.
“I think the three minutes was important because it means that everyone, from the central government down to every individual, is thinking of us. Because this is worse than a war,” said He Ling, a policeman in Pingtong town, which was almost totally wrecked by the earthquake. Even as the rescuers stopped work, another aftershock rattled the area and set off a small landslide from a nearby cliff.