China Earthquake: Exodus Begins From Sichuan

By Richard Spencer in Hanwang Town, Sichuan Province
Last Updated: 11:05PM BST 14/05/2008

Tens of thousands of people have poured down from the mountainsides of Sichuan searching for food and water as rescuers evacuated towns where more than 40,000 people are dead, buried or missing. Rescue teams are digging through rubble, trying to reach survivors of a powerful earthquake in China.

Helicopters began to airlift residents out of the villages of Wenchuan county at the epicentre of the earthquake which struck China on Monday, while others walked for hours into the valleys and plains to the south and east. The county is still cut off from land-based relief by landslides.

But the exodus might yet be heading into more danger, with emergency workers attempting to plug gaps in two major dams.

The Zipingpu dam, above the city of Dujiangyan with its population of 600,000, was said at one stage to be in an "extremely dangerous state" with cracks more than four inches wide appearing in its face, though the water resources ministry later said on its website that it was stable for the time being.

Tulong dam, further north on the Min river, was said by officials to be near collapse, something which would have a knock-on effect on a series of dams and power stations further downstream.

Almost 400 dams altogether were said to have been affected by Monday's earthquake – the wet and mountainous province is criss-crossed by some of China's biggest and fastest-flowing rivers.

While some dams, like Zipingpu, are modern, others were built when construction standards were lower.

All day long, the 100,000 troops now assigned to the rescue effort grappled with the wreckage of major cities, towns and villages across a wide area.

There were some successes, including the rescue of a three-year-old girl in Beichuan, one of the worst-affected towns, and an eight-months pregnant woman trapped under an apartment block in Dujiangyan.

But by the evening the official death toll stood at nearly 15,000, with another 25,000 reported buried and more unaccounted for.

In Wenchuan, a paramilitary officer told local television that a third of houses had been destroyed and 90 per cent damaged.

Meanwhile, the survivors were starting to look ever more desperately for supplies, walking for hours out of their mountain villages to seek help.

"There is nothing left of my village," said Fu Yuanming, who had walked for 10 hours from Village Number 3 of Qingping district near the epicentre to Hanwang town. "We need help. Our people have nothing to eat, they have nothing to drink."

He said a landslide had blocked the river above the village, turning into a reservoir that was about to burst.

Along all the roads in the region, makeshift camps have been set up. Residents of the towns lined up patiently as fire engines served out buckets of water; in the villages, locals ran out into the road to forcibly stop trucks and beg for supplies of noodles and biscuits.

"Someone had better set up relief coordination, or the people will resort to robbery," said one man in the village of Wudu.

More than 10,000 people were crowded into the sports stadium in the city of Mianyang, Sichuan's second biggest city and an important base for China's high-tec industry. Many had walked from Beichuan.

Ralph Johnson, a British teacher who lives in the city and runs a pub there, said that almost a million people were now spending their days on the streets. That included the city's 800,000 population, many of whom were like him unable to return to their damaged flats, and thousands more refugees.

He was also waiting to hear news of the mountain primary school for which his regulars have raised funds, and which feeds a secondary school known to have collapsed with up to 1,000 dead.

A British embassy rapid response unit began work in the provincial capital Chengdu to help coordinate the search for tourists trapped in the region. Nineteen members of a Kuoni tour party that were on their way to the Wolong giant panda reserve near Wenchuan when the earthquake hit were still unaccounted for last night.

There were unconfirmed reports that a group of 50 tourists had been located at the reserve, and 12 Americans who had been missing spoke to Worldwide Fund for Nature officials by satellite phone.

But Sir William Ehrman, the British ambassador, told The Daily Telegraph that there had still been no contact with the British group.

"We are extremely concerned," he said. "We are trying all we can to locate those who are unaccounted for."

It would be tiring to take it point by point but I will if you want to. It's all right there. Such as...

The Tibetan view of Tibetan-Manchu relations is that:
"The Manchu, or Qing, Empire became Tibet's overlord in 1720 when it installed the Seventh Dalai Lama, but this relationship was not rigorously defined and the Manchu made no effort to absorb Tibet as a province. Tibetans paid no taxes to the Manchu, as Mongolia, which is independent today, did. Tibet also maintained its legal and administrative systems with its own officials, while Chinese and Manchu authorities directly ruled Mongolia. As early as 1792, the Manchu emperor Qianlong knew that the Dalai Lama and his ministers were "able to do whatever they wished in the administration of Tibetan affairs, ignoring . . . the incompetent [Manchu] officials" who were theoretically supposed to govern Tibet. This nebulous relationship grew even more unclear throughout the nineteenth century because of threats the Manchu faced everywhere."[102]

所有的历史文物都可以证明:曾经西藏就是中国的. 在拉萨市城中磨盘山上的关帝庙中，一块刻有“万世不朽”四字的石碑静静地立在那里，诉说着１７９２年清朝中央政府派兵进藏反击廓尔喀人入侵取得胜利的这段历史。中央人民政府驻藏代表楼、将军楼、中共西藏工委办公院、昌都解放委员会办公旧址等９处“红色遗迹”目前正在进行保护维修，这些见证了西藏和平解放的革命文物将于今年底完成维修、布展。 “这些重要的历史文物反映了西藏与祖国的关系，是西藏历来属于中国、中央政府有效治理西藏的历史见证。”西藏自治区文化厅厅长尼玛次仁近日在接受新华社记者采访时表示，自治区有关部门将有效保护这些珍贵文物。位于日喀则地区的“大唐天竺使出铭”汉文摩崖石刻去年刚刚进行了修缮。这是西藏迄今发现的汉文石刻中年代最早的，系唐显庆三年（公元６５８年）朝廷使臣出使天竺经此地时所刻下，记载了唐代使节历经艰难险阻出使天竺的情形。专家介绍说，在唐朝藏汉双方通过王室间的联姻、会盟，为最终建立统一国家奠定了深厚基础。布达拉宫至今供奉着唐朝文成公主的塑像，大昭寺前的广场上还矗立着公元８２３年建立的“唐蕃会盟碑”。西藏自治区博物馆陈列着一方上等和田玉制的元代“国师之印”。博物馆陈列宣教部主任何晓东告诉记者，公元１２６０年忽必烈继承王位，建立元朝政府，封萨迦派法王八思巴为灌顶国师，赐玉印，委其兼管中央政权设置的总制院管理西藏军政、宗教事务。１２７１年忽必烈定国号为元，１２７９年统一中国，西藏正式成为中央政府直接管理的一个行政区。用于认定达赖、班禅等藏传佛教大活佛转世灵童的金瓶和签牌，也陈列在自治区博物馆中。史籍记载，清朝乾隆皇帝钦定关于治理西藏事务的廿九条章程确定了用“金瓶掣签”的办法认定灵童的制度。该章程第一条规定：“关于寻找活佛灵童事宜。经各方认真考察，并问卜于四大护法神之后，将在御赐金瓶内放入写有拟定为灵童者名字及出生年月的签牌，选派学识渊博的喇嘛，祈祷七日后，由众呼图克图会同驻藏大臣于释迦牟尼佛像前认定。”“再者，认定达赖、班禅灵童时，须将其名以满、汉、藏三体文字书于签牌，如此则可取信于天下民众。”其中，驻藏大臣是中央政府的官员。可见，达赖、班禅灵童的认定是由中央官员主持的。自清王朝至民国年间，仅西藏一地，就有格鲁、噶举、宁玛三派的３９个活佛转世系统７０余名活佛通过金瓶掣签认定。中央人民政府驻藏代表楼位于西藏自治区党校院内，１９５２年至１９５５年任中央人民政府驻西藏代表的张经武将军在这里办公。１９５０年１０月１９日中国人民解放军解放昌都，打开了通往西藏的大门。１９５１年４月西藏地方政府派出阿沛·阿旺晋美为主的５名全权代表到达北京，同中央人民政府全权代表李维汉、张经武等经多次协商，正式签订了《十七条协议》，宣告西藏和平解放。

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