b.a.c.k.

Woke up by the chirps of birds at 5:30 in the morning, in my own bed. I know I'm back home now.

The last two weeks seemed the longest in my life and I was feeling returning from a different world on the way from Shanghai airport back to Hangzhou. The field was all in dark yellow,as the canola plants were ripe and to be harvested. I remember it was lush green when I left, and just two days ago in Guilin, the paddy field very tender green with new rice plants.

Cities are different as we were.

It's a trip with too many changes, unprecedented. The group originally planned to go to Lhasa, Tibet, however, after the government closed down due to the unrest and riots, to foreign visitors, the programme was resheduled to travel to Lijiang and Chengdu. No wonder as soon as the group of alumi of University of Chicage landed at T3 new terminal at Beijing airport, the first question they raised was , 'Can we still go to Chengdu?' It was May 15, 3 days after the most deadly earthquake in last decades to China, hitting Wenchuan with 8 on scale, only hundred mile away from Chengdu.

'From the news, Chengdu is safe and flights to/from the airport have been restored.'

But in the coming days, the situation had developed far from our imagination. With more after shocks hittingin that area, death tolls rising, so many moments teardrops rolled down my face automatically, while watching the news, photos and reading stories behind. Too sad and tragic, especially those kids and students crushed under the rubble. I was happy when explained to the group there was possibility about the programe change, they acted very understanding.

I remember, in Xi'an, I shed tears again at breakfast, by a waitress handing over a newspaper all printed in black as a memorial for the dead 40,000. And rumor spread in this city, that the quakes would shift to the norther area from its original epicenter, like Xi'an. So for two days and two nights, we witnessed hundreds of thousands of local citizens fleeing or taking shelter on the streets on 19 and 20th. And by then, I knew we couldn't fly to Chengdu, due to the fact that the whole city had been mobilized to the relief work, espcially the tour buses.

In order to minimumize their travel mood, I kept the news secret until we finished the highlight tour to terra-cotta soldiers. On the way back to city, I explained the announcement. Thankfully, they took it very calmly and acted very cool with it. We were arranged to do the three gorges cruise instead of Chengdu and Lijiang ( flight via Chengdu there cancelled). But to me, the worst arrangement is, our group will be set in two teams, the majority of 12 flying directly to Yichang for the cruise, while I ,together with the oldest man, who travelled solo, were to fly to Beijing and then to Yichang. ( I still was not happy with lcal agent's arrangement.Just because he was alone?!In my opinion is this was not fair to him and least respectful for the elderly, who was 84 years old.) I tried my best and he accepted it. Thank you, Robert.

Left in Xi'an at 7 am, got to Beijing at 11, flied again at 2 and got to Yichang at 4 and reunited with the group at 6 at the airport before dinner.

The cruise on the gorges actually turned out to be the very relaxing and enjoyable. A nice new boat, Katarina under Victoria cruiser prepared rich activites aboard,like lectures, performances as well as offshore excursions, to the construction site of the project, boat into Lesser three gorges, and Ghost city.

We disembarked in Chongqing on 25, and in the afternoon, lying in bed, I felt the quake, horizontal way, lasting for about 20 seconds.Even it was my first time in my entire life, thank god, I stayed really calmand just waited patiently for it to go. It totally surprised myself. We were on 16 floor of Hilton, and the afterquake turned out to be 5.6 scale.

In Guilin, we knew that the quake hit Xi'an, and fortunately caused least trouble but in this new city to us, the thunderstorm during last couple of days, caused floods and over 50 people got killed. We were lucky with the weather, changing between thunderstorm in the morning, sunny near the noon and light drizzle in the evening. We made all the sun and avoided all the rain, so close within seconds. It was similar story the second day too after the boatrise on Li river.

Felt safe finally in Shangahi. But always the ever rising of death toll made sky still dark and gloomy. But life goes on and should be in a good way too, with so much support behind! So be brave and strong, to us all!