The Downtown Diner

Today at 2:28pm everyone in China stood in silence for three minutes to remember the people who lost everything in the recent earthquake. Cars had been instructed to honk their horns and alarms were ringing everywhere. I knew it was going to be an emotional moment but I was not ready for the real impact of hearing all those horns and alarms start at exactly the same time - it was like the whole country was crying out together, still trying to grasp the magnitude of the horror that shook the country exactly a week ago. And the whole country was united together in empathy with Beichuan and the surrounding regions. The Chinese prime minister has been traveling through that region recently and he's said several times the way he wants China to react to this crisis: calm, confidant and united. The united part was certainly showing this afternoon. People mobilized quickly and respectfully to show solidarity.

There's a women in my team named Rachel Zhang who was in her hometown of Mianyang when the earthquake hit last week. She was very very close to the epicenter and it's a miracle that she and her family survived with no serious injuries. She wrote here about her experiences this week delivering some supplies to one of the hardest-hit regions (all in Chinese).

Rachel's city has something like 4 million residents. About 8,000 people have already been found dead, 20,000 are believed to be buried in the debris, and 26,000 others were injured in the wake of Monday's quake. It is such a blessing that Rachel and her family are okay, thank God for that.