Last Friday our program went to Beichuan, the epicenter of the Earthquake that rocked the Sichuan Province in China, 2008. I was about to type something to the effect of, "It seems like natural disasters are becoming more and more prevalent," when in reality it's probably that we have just become more aware of them in the last couple decades due to the internet. After all, if not for the internet, I wouldn't be typing this now, would I? But all that being said, we
have seen some pretty catastrophic natural disasters in the last few years. I'm thinking the earthquake in Haiti, the BP Oil Spill (at least as far as its environmental implications are concerned), the recent earthquake in Japan and I'll go ahead and rehash hurricane Katrina. These aren't in order and their causes aren't all similar but the effects are unanimously negative: economies blown apart, governments shaken, cities crumbled, families displaced and many people dead or wounded. Long story short, nobody's happy.
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| A ceiling |
So when we were told that we were going to the museum of the ruble that was Beichuan, I couldn't help but wonder if we were treading where we weren't welcome; if people were rolling in their graves as we unwittingly walked on top of them. This was my first experience in the scene that is the aftermath of a natural disaster and was less than inspiring. We got off the bus and for the first time, a group of white people wasn't the thing worth taking pictures of. All over the place were Chinese people staring at the buildings, at the debris. Many of the structures were being supported by multiple, thick, metal beams to keep them from falling upon onlookers. The major sites were dotted with small informative, posts to tell you initial estimates of casualties compared with actual number, as well as a little information regarding what the building was used for, and what it originally looked like.
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| Before |
The buildings were in varying states of disrepair. All were cracked, some with warped window and door frames. Broken glass everywhere. Some buildings were tilted at angles as if a giant game of dominoes had been put on hold and others had just fallen over completely. We walked on a bridge that took us through the middle of one - to our left we could look at the floor of one story and to our right we could see the ceiling of the next. The path weaved in and out of destruction and the sidewalk had become stair-steps in some places, in light of the event. The major highway that tunneled through a hill to connect Beichuan to ten other cities has since become a waterfall.
Finally, we got to the housing district. You could see mattresses displaced and a desk knocked over. Markers had collected in one corner of a house where they had rolled to. It's one thing when you see a broken window or a door hanging off its hinges but when you can look into a bathroom and realize someone lived there... that's when it all becomes real.
I guess at first, I was a little appauled at the idea of making this city-gone-cemetery into a museum. That it was disrespectful of the Chinese government to do such a thing. But then I thought about the alternatives. Obviously no one could live there. The materials couldn't be reused because just collecting them would pose too much danger. So maybe the best thing really was to make a museum, not to make money off misfortune, but to honor the bereaved. At the end we saw a large memorial, honoring the departed, covered with rocks spelling out "5.12," the date of the event.
Further away was the new city, at a better location. The original city was by many beautiful mountains, likely as a defensible position in earlier years, but the new city is by a river which will help boost it's economy. The buildings there are comparatively well built and are painted in matching color schemes which is something that other cities in China can't stand up to. It has some lawns and young trees - in all reality, it reminds me of a western city. No one can deny that the earthquake was a disaster but it has allowed Beichuan to rebuild, to emerge as a newer and more sophisticated city, at least in appearance. Hopefully other cities won't need such nature-related coercion but if China is smart, they can key in on this silver lining and look into developing their other cities in ways fitting for a developed country.
Last Friday our program went to Beichuan, the epicenter of the Earthquake that rocked the Sichuan Province in China, 2008. I was about to type something to the effect of, "It seems like natural disasters are becoming more and more prevalent," when in reality it's probably that we have just become more aware of them in the last couple decades due to the internet. After all, if not for the internet, I wouldn't be typing this now, would I? But all that being said, we have seen some pretty catastrophic natural disasters in the last few years. I'm thinking the earthquake in Haiti, the BP Oil Spill (at least as far as its environmental implications are concerned), the recent earthquake in Japan and I'll go ahead and rehash hurricane Katrina. These aren't in order and their causes aren't all similar but the effects are unanimously negative: economies blown apart, governments shaken, cities crumbled, families displaced and many people dead or wounded. Long story short, nobody's happy.
So when we were told that we were going to the museum of the ruble that was Beichuan, I couldn't help but wonder if we were treading where we weren't welcome; if people were rolling in their graves as we unwittingly walked on top of them. This was my first experience in the scene that is the aftermath of a natural disaster and was less than inspiring. We got off the bus and for the first time, a group of white people wasn't the thing worth taking pictures of. All over the place were Chinese people staring at the buildings, at the debris. Many of the structures were being supported by multiple, thick, metal beams to keep them from falling upon onlookers. The major sites were dotted with small informative, posts to tell you initial estimates of casualties compared with actual number, as well as a little information regarding what the building was used for, and what it originally looked like.
The buildings were in varying states of disrepair. All were cracked, some with warped window and door frames. Broken glass everywhere. Some buildings were tilted at angles as if a giant game of dominoes had been put on hold and others had just fallen over completely. We walked on a bridge that took us through the middle of one - to our left we could look at the floor of one story and to our right we could see the ceiling of the next. The path weaved in and out of destruction and the sidewalk had become stair-steps in some places, in light of the event. The major highway that tunneled through a hill to connect Beichuan to ten other cities has since become a waterfall. 
Finally, we got to the housing district. You could see mattresses displaced and a desk knocked over. Markers had collected in one corner of a house where they had rolled to. It's one thing when you see a broken window or a door hanging off its hinges but when you can look into a bathroom and realize someone lived there... that's when it all becomes real.
Further away was the new city, at a better location. The original city was by many beautiful mountains, likely as a defensible position in earlier years, but the new city is by a river which will help boost it's economy. The buildings there are comparatively well built and are painted in matching color schemes which is something that other cities in China can't stand up to. It has some lawns and young trees - in all reality, it reminds me of a western city. No one can deny that the earthquake was a disaster but it has allowed Beichuan to rebuild, to emerge as a newer and more sophisticated city, at least in appearance. Hopefully other cities won't need such nature-related coercion but if China is smart, they can key in on this silver lining and look into developing their other cities in ways fitting for a developed country.
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