May 12 (Monday EST): A talk with my brother
9:00pm EST: Luck came to me one time that I was able to reach my brother on his cell phone. He was driving from Beijing to Chengdu, and he was in Xi’an while the earthquake happened. He told me that he got some information here and there that folks in Chengdu are OK, but the rescue to Wenchuan was very hampered due to the heavy rain, mud-slide, rock falling, broken communication (road and phone).
My brother also told me that the places like JiuZhaiGou (Nine Village Valley), WoLong, etc were all heavily impacted, but the damage was unknown. You might not know, my brother is in travel industry, his travel agency has tour groups to go those beautiful places everybody. He himself in his early stage of travel life had led numerious tour groups there himself, he knows the folks there, they are his friends! His heart was so sad about them. We talked, we were not even sure whether those world famous site scene such as JiuZhaiGou (Nine Village Valley) would still be there, or still be the same after the earthquake. Our family just went JiuZhaiGou while visiting China last year, it is gorgeous, what a shame if it got destroyed!
Back to my brother: the highway to Chengdu was damaged, he could not drive home, what would he do? He’s trampped in Xi’an for right now.
