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Tales from the quake: heroism, compassion

By Huang Zhiling and Wang Wei (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-02 07:49

Liu Shizhao, a 60-year-old photographer from the People's China magazine in Beijing, waited for a long time to find a taxi to take him to Dujiangyan to do a reporting assignment.

When the cabbie Li Haiqing from the Hongsheng Taxi Co learned what Liu would do in Dujiangyan, he did not charge him for the round trip, which cost at least 400 yuan before the quake.

Li, a man more than 50 years old, gave journalists and volunteers heading for quake zones free rides although he is not rich. He has to support his parents who are more than 80 years old. His wife has retired because of illness. He has been laid off from a deficit-ridden cement plant in Chengdu and earns less than 4,000 yuan a month as a cabbie.

Not far from the capital of Sichuan province is the renowned ancient water project Dujiangyan (above). Among the modern highrises and facilities in downtown Chengdu (below right) are a number of well-preserved ancient corners (below left). [China Daily]

According to Yang Xuan, manager of the Hongsheng Taxi Co, more than 40 taxis in the company transported the injured and relief materials free of charge.

On the evening of May 12, quake victims trying to flee Dujiangyan offered between 400 and 1,200 yuan for any vehicle they could find to take them to Chengdu.

But Lai Xiusheng, a 40-year-old cabbie from the Chengfeng Taxi Co in Chengdu, took some 20 victims free of charge to her 90 sq m apartment. She offered free meals to the people left homeless by the quake. Two girls aged 19 lived in her home for more than a month.

On May 14, He Cunquan, a 41-year-old Chengdu citizen, and his wife Lai Linglong led a convoy of seven trucks to take mineral water, milk, instant noodles and vermicelli they collected with the help of a friend to Jiulong town in Mianzhu, a city hard hit by the quake in Sichuan. There they found a distraught 22-year-old pregnant woman, Cao Peijing.

When her home collapsed, both Cao's legs were buried in the rubble before her father-in-law pulled her out.

On the way back to Chengdu, He suggested to his wife they take Cao to their home in Chengdu. The couple went back to the town two days later and took Cao to Chengdu. Cao lived in their home for nearly a month and enjoyed free, delicious and nutritious food until she was hospitalized to give birth to a healthy boy weighing 3.4 kg on June 13.

Before Cao left Chengdu for the prefab shelter the local government built for her family in Mianzhu, she and her 24-year-old husband Li Yongxing, a traffic policeman, said that the month in Chengdu would be an unforgettable time of their lives.

When the quake struck, Yang Meirong, a pregnant woman in the Pengzhou Women and Children's Hospital in Chengdu, felt a severe stomachache. As the position of her baby was abnormal, she needed a caesarian section immediately.

Wang Li, a middle-aged doctor in the hospital, braved strong aftershocks to finish the operation. While wheeling Yang to the operation room, Wang told her terrified husband: "Don't be afraid. We will stay and die with you if the building collapses."

To appreciate Wang's professionalism, Yang named her son Zhensheng meaning "born in the quake."

In the ensuring days, Wang could not remember how many caesarian operations she performed despite aftershocks. She only remembers that on a single day, she did eight.

He Feng, a 28-year-old urologist at Huaxi Hospital of Sichuan University, was in an operation room on the third floor with other four medics including Wei Qiang, the department's 45-year-old director, when the quake jolted the hospital building.

"The operation was yet to start as the patient was just under anesthesia. We were afraid but did not leave the room until the operation was finished two hours later, for the patient was lying there. In the process of the operation, a magnitude 6 aftershock shook the room," He said.

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