About China blogosphere, travel, and entrepreneurship

Special times prompt special — well, special specials, pardon the pun. This week has been an extraordinary one, with the earthquake halfway through Monday shakings up.

First of all, a first-hand account about how things turned out in Beijing, at ground level. (The posts I quote were all written on Tuesday, a day after the quake.) As Kaiser Kuo recalls:

At 2:28 yesterday afternoon, I had stopped off at home in Beijing’s Central Business District after lunch and was writing an email to a VC friend of mine when I suddenly felt dizzy. For the first few seconds, I thought it was all in my head, but then there was the distinct sensation of physical movement. I asked my wife, “Is this an earthquake?” She was incredulous at first, but then found she almost lost her footing and held a wall for support. “It is an earthquake,” she said. I looked out the window toward the new office towers going up south of my building, and could have sworn I saw them swaying. We talked for a couple of seconds about what we should do–whether we should get under a doorway, or get downstairs. Then it all stopped, about 35 seconds afterward.

Nearly immediately after the quake, I myself got a flood of messages, all from people I knew, who were concerned with how things were in Beijing. As I wrote on my blog in the form of a letter to all my friends:

I’m presently in the Chinese capital. It is true that an earthquake shook China yesterday. According to Web reports, Beijing’s Tongzhou District (in the eastern suburbs) shook to the tune of a Magnitude 3.9 earthquake; upon further examination, this came from the Sichuan earthquake in Wenchuan County (Magnitude 7.8). No reports of casualties came from the capital, but those on the 15th floor and above on the China World Trade Center reported shaking. When the quake hit Beijing at 14:35 on May 12, 2008, I was driving normally on the eastern 5th Ringway. I felt nothing from the quake: the car was in full control, the road did not shake, and no signs of odd behavior came from any other vehicle. After the quake struck, I was able to ride the Beijing Subway with no problems, detecting no tremors underground. There were rumors of aftershocks yesterday night; despite the earthquake authorities denying this, and being a believer in the adage “better safe than sorry”, I got ready and was ready for any possible aftershocks. No such aftershocks actually happened.

That night, I started giving — to those in need. First off, CNY 1,000 went straight into my hands from the ATM, ready to give to the folks in need. The Beijing Planning Exhibition Hall held a brief event the next morning (on Tuesday), where I dropped the One Grand into the donation box. I also sent two messages via my two phones and gave via SMS. I also keep a separate account for charity purposes; were it not for the fact that I had groups to entertain every day (and that work time always conflicted with when the banks were in operation), I would have also arranged for that cash to be sent off to those who needed it most.

As we move now about a hundred hours away from the quake, things still remain a bit out of the ordinary. There are pockets of “normal life” returning to the capital (the latest reports about the Daxing Subway Line, as well as the northern extension in planning for Line 8 sounds very much like the Beijing buzz pre-quake), but lest you forget that there is still a calamity in pretty much our backyard, the evening news is still in extension mode (today’s 7 o’clock Network News Broadcast finished at 19:55, 25 minutes longer than the average broadcast), whole pages of newspapers (including the “non-polit” Beijing Evening News) are still abuzz with Wenchuan, and the conversation at the workplace is still very much about the dizhen (地震, earthquake in Chinese).

What’s notable is how close this quake has been sewn on the world stage. Auntie Beeb or the BBC still has the quake in a very notable part of their news page, and a huge chunk of the national People’s Daily has a summary of messages of condolences from foreign leaders, as well as news about massive donations from the leaders of Saudi Arabia.

Today, there is no gap.

This lack in the gap is made evident with how the World has reacted to the quake — and how China has reacted. A mere two hours after the tremor, China’s prime minister, Wen Jiabao, rushed to the disaster area, while the President, Hu Jintao, managed to join Wen only today. Politburo meetings were disaster-only in theme and topics, and the figures were disclosed in due time. The last time such a big disaster befell China (and where Beijing was hard hit) was during SARS — the daily 4 PM briefings by the Ministry of Health were like yesterday to yours truly. Core to this was the disclosure of facts and stats.

The gap is also “not there” today because of the World we live in. I experienced this just late last year in person: when the 2007 Chinese Blogger Conf was held, I blogged it (tweeted it, rather) live with Blognation. The Scobleizer instantly made note of this and zoomed in on the Chinese blogosphere. The Chinese Internet has become a big topic of late, and when details of the 2008 conf was made available, tweets were being retweeted, time and again. The Scobleizer, too, reacted nearly instantly when tweets about the quake poured in this time.

The World is no longer a series of unconnected archipelagoes. What happens in this village could very well be Headlines News in just a matter of hours or even minutes. Today, there is no gap.

Meanwhile, as someone on the ground — and as someone with Chinese heritage, I’d like to say that this event has affected me, like it affected a great number of people. While I’m thousands of kilometers away from the epicenter, those affected — injured, killed or buried — are in my prayers. This is a terrible tragedy. At the same time, I encourage everyone to give — cash, goods, or anything. (Lines have formed in Beijing because folks want to give their blood.) I’ve given — and I will give, once again. Finally, I want to thank those who’ve given and who express their condolences. It won’t be easy, but we’re pretty sure that we’ll get back on the ground and start moving, once again — not too far away in the distance.

Image from Sina. - added by Min.