Relative informations about the earthquake

• A strong earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale has rocked Wenchuan in Sichuan province, some 92km northwest of Chengdu on May 12th. The earthquake took place at 14:48 Beijing Time and sent thousands of people rushing out of buildings and into the streets hundreds of miles away in Beijing and Shanghai. The temblor was felt as far away as Vietnam and Thailand.
• About 1,200 pandas -- 80 percent of the surviving wild population in China -- live in several mountainous areas of Sichuan. The earthquake hit one of the last homes of the giant panda at the Wolong Nature Reserve and panda breeding center, in Wenchuan county, which remained out of contact till the morning of May 13th.
• Although it was difficult to telephone Chengdu, the citizens in Chengdu still can send messages through MSN saying there were power and water outages there.
• The earthquake also rattled buildings in Beijing, some 930 miles to the north, less than three months before the Chinese capital was expected to be full of hundreds of thousands of foreign visitors for the Summer Olympics. Li Jiulin, a top engineer on the 91,000--seat National Stadium -- known as the Bird's Nest and the jewel of the Olympics -- was conducting an inspection at the venue when the quake occurred. He told reporters the building was designed to withstand a 8.0 quake. "The Olympic venues were not affected by the earthquake," said Sun Weide, a spokesman for the Beijing organizing committee.
• The Tourism Administration of China made the announcement that all travel services must stop organizing any tour groups to visit Sichuan province for safety’s sake, while those travelers who are in Sichuan areas should be helped to leave as early as possible. The information we have received says that the conditions in Sichuan, especially in the areas around Chengdu, Wolong and Jiuzhaigou are not good for traveling. Chongqing however has had no problem, so Yangtze River Cruises are still available.

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