Expo mourns people killed in NW China mudslide
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| Staff members of the Chinese Embassy to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) pay a silent tribute to the victims of the Aug. 8 mudslide disaster in Zhouqu County, Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in northwest China's Gansu Province, in Pyongyang Aug. 15, 2010. China on Sunday held mounrings for the mudslide victims, all over the country and at overseas embassies and consulates. |
People crowded the Gansu Pavilion of the Shanghai World Expo Sunday to pay their respects to the victims of the Aug. 8 mudslide that left at least 1,239 dead and 505 missing in the province.
At 10 a.m., people in the pavilion, wearing small plastic white flowers, observed a three-minute silence. Then they removed the flowers and put them on a glass table under a map of Gansu, on which Zhouqu, the disaster site, was highlighted.
Du Jingli, 50, from Gansu, placed her flower on the table and gazed at the map. "I don't know what to say, I just feel sorrowful."
Du had planned to visit the China Pavilion first, but changed her mind when she learnt about the tribute.
The pavilion was dark as most of its lights were turned off. Only a few were used to illuminate a banner saying "Deep Condolences to People Killed in the Zhouqu Mudslide" in large black Chinese characters hung in the pavilion's main exhibition room.
"Let's keep the lost lives in memory, put aside the pain and join hands in rebuilding Zhouqu," Li Shumin, deputy head of the pavilion, said after the ceremony.
Workers at the Pavilion of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies gave visitors red bracelets, and donations had half-filled a collection box.
Donations had increased significantly since the mudslide, said Wang Jiajun, a spokesman for the pavilion.
Visitors could also write messages for people in Zhouqu in a book near the collection box. Both their words and donations would be sent to the Red Cross Society of Shanghai, Wang said.
"Although my family is not in Zhouqu, I'm still worried about them," said a visitor surnamed Wang, a native of Gansu who works in south China's Shenzhen City.
The Expo Bureau has halted all entertainment activities in the Expo Park Sunday, a national day of mourning for Zhouqu mudslide victims. The Gansu Pavilion would not hold any entertainment activities until September, spokesman Wang Shigang told Xinhua.
VOLUNTEER FROM ZHOUQU
A student volunteer at the China Pavilion, Yang Yaoci, 20, lost seven relatives back in his hometown, Zhouqu County.
An ethnic Tibetan and a junior student, Yang started working at the Expo Park with 1,160 other volunteers from Shanghai Institute of Electric Power on Aug. 9.
Yang declined to talk Sunday. On the platform where he was working, a large screen displayed photos of devastated Zhouqu to visitors who were lining to enter the pavilion.
Last week he told Xinhua that he had wanted to return home after learning of the tragedy, but his father persuaded him there was nothing he could do.
Yang and his family survived the May 12 earthquake in 2008, which left about 87,000 people dead or missing and ravaged Zhouqu County.
Many buildings in Zhouqu were reconstructed with aid from south China's Shenzhen City. Many of those buildings lie half buried in mud.
"MAY HEAVEN BLESS ZHOUQU"
Yan Yiming, 20, a student volunteer from Shanghai Jiao Tong University at the Expo press center Sunday, was handing out stickers with "May Heaven Bless Zhouqu" in four Chinese characters across a picture she took of the city last month.
Below the picture she wrote donation methods.
Yan, who had just returned from a volunteer teaching program in Zhouqu, when the disaster occurred and she has been in constant contact with a former student since.
Volunteers from different universities who had taught in Zhouqu together in the same teaching program are exchanging information on the status of their students in online communities like Xiaonei.com.
"The National Mourning Day made Zhouqu the focus of China, more people will learn about the disaster in Zhouqu, the suffering of mudslide victims and that is what I have been trying to do in the past week," Yan said.
"I just want to tell more people Zhouqu is in need."
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