Three Days of Mourning *Edited*

As most of you know, there was a 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Sichuan Province in China last Monday, May 12th. This distructive earthquake has killed over 30,000 people, injured over 200,000, and left 4.5 million people homeless. Because of the one-child law in China, families have lost their only children, and in some cases, entire families have been killed. In light of this, the Chinese government has issued Three Days of Mourning. During this three days, all overseas "entertainment" programs have been suspended (no American Idol for us =[[[[[[ ) as well as the internet is supposed to have been shut down as well (obviously that has not happened yet). But here is the absolutely amazing thing.

Yesterday, Monday, at 2:28 PM, which was the exact time the earthquake hit, one week prior, the Government issued 3 minutes of silence. Now, after 9-11, Americans held a moment of silence as well, but never did we get the entire nation to stand at one point and all bow our heads. But being the govenrment that they are, and being a united country that China is, at 2:28 yesterday, nearly all of China, thats 1 billion people, stood facing the direction of Sichuan, and bowed their heads for 3 minutes of silence. But here is the interesting thing. During this three minutes of silence, the only silence was that no one was talking. Outside though, horns were blaring. People were told to honk their car horns, and to blow ship horns. The reason for all the horns was to symbolize the chaos that took place immediately following the earthquake. It was really amazing for me to see the unitedness of this Communist country and to see the respect that they have. I know in the States, if something like his happened, you would have had moments of silence, but it would never be like it was here. At 2:28, people stopped their cars if they were driving, right in the middle of the street, and they got out of their cars to pay their respects.

This is a video that someone compiled of clips of this even happening. It is noisey, so you don't need the sound up very loud, but you can see what I mean about how united China is as a country and how much respect that they have for those who died. http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/k4oQH2K_Wig/

**At the end they are shouting "jia you" which means rebuild, and they might add on "zhong guo" or "si chuan" which are China and Si Chuan (the province hit).**

I just wanted to give you all a little taste of the patriotism going on in China during this time of mourning. They may have a different government system then the US, and they may have different ways of handling things, but one thing is for sure: they are united as a country.

We were at a rehersal yesterday in school at 2:28 when we were to stand, so most of the school was all located in one area, and it was really neat for me to look around and see all these people of so many nationalities, stand and pay respect for our host country. I was grateful to be an American at that time, but grateful that I was able to be a part of something so big.


-Andrea