Seeing the remnants of the Wenchuan Earthquake at Xiankou Middle School,Yingxiu was reality hitting rock - bottom. After the beauty of Jiuzhaigou, we made a detour on a cold, grim day to witness the devastation wrought at one of many sites of a natural disaster of massive magnitude. The Wenchuan Earthquake ( Wenchuan was the earthquake's epicentre), similarly known as the Great Sichuan Earthquake, 2008 registered 8.5 on the Richter scale. There were 149 - 284 major aftershocks with reports of tremors reaching faraway to Beijing, Shanghai, Macau, India !
Here we were in this place where a key Middle High School of 1527 student and 133 teacher population stood. Silence reigns here with the rubble remaining. The school bell will not ever ring again. Tourists like us make a visit . For the locals, this is a grim daily reminder . A 5.12 Memorial Clock showing 2.28 pm when the quake happened was set up to remember the loved ones on that fateful day, May 12. Behind the Memorial, the 5 storey building was down to ground level. This tragedy was mourned by the nation and The State Council gave order for a 3 day national mourning on May 19, 2008.
The buildings collapsed in mountains of heaps and some near falling and cracked and standing are now relics. The huge clock shows 5.12. That's when disaster struck on May, 12th. All hell broke loose. It must have. On can imagine the students' desperate cries, how the teachers must have fought in vain to rescue them and fell victims themselves.
Coming from a country spared from natural disasters, it is quite easy to forget about natural calamities.The ruins we saw can surely touch anyone. It is no more about images that flashed on tv screens.
Here we were in this place where a key Middle High School of 1527 student and 133 teacher population stood. Silence reigns here with the rubble remaining. The school bell will not ever ring again. Tourists like us make a visit . For the locals, this is a grim daily reminder . A 5.12 Memorial Clock showing 2.28 pm when the quake happened was set up to remember the loved ones on that fateful day, May 12. Behind the Memorial, the 5 storey building was down to ground level. This tragedy was mourned by the nation and The State Council gave order for a 3 day national mourning on May 19, 2008.
The buildings collapsed in mountains of heaps and some near falling and cracked and standing are now relics. The huge clock shows 5.12. That's when disaster struck on May, 12th. All hell broke loose. It must have. On can imagine the students' desperate cries, how the teachers must have fought in vain to rescue them and fell victims themselves.
Coming from a country spared from natural disasters, it is quite easy to forget about natural calamities.The ruins we saw can surely touch anyone. It is no more about images that flashed on tv screens.
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