Reschedule your trip to Sichuan, Yunnan, Shanxi and Gansu in China
A terrible tragedy- a 7.8 earthquake happend in Wenchuan, Sichuan province China at 2:38pm on May 12 2008. More than 9000 death have been reported on May 13 2008 7am. More than 60,000 people were trapped and disconnected. China national TV station CCTV news channel broadcasts the after-tragedy rescue live. We watched TV for about 3 hours last night.
The center of the earthquake Wenchuan (汶川) is the home to lovely Grand Pandas. It is also a popular travel destination. It is reported that the roads to the best attraction of the province – Jiuzhaigou are seriously damaged in the earthquake. Jiuzhaigou is about 450 km away from Chengdu and around 300 km away from Wenchuan.
The neighborhood provinces: Yunnan (云南), Shanxi (陕西) and Gansu(甘肃) recorded death in this earthquake. Railways, freeways, power plants, telecom signal towers were damaged. More than 2,800 cellphone signal towers in Sichuan province collaped. Quite some cities and towns near the earthquake center lost electricity. Weather forcast says it will rain in the coming 3 days. So bad.
I would recommend you to change your travel plan to west China in the coming week.
The scene of a high school after earthquake in Doujiangyan (都江堰) which is famous for a dam built in 2000+ years ago. 100 km away from Chendu.
This Ming Dynasty tower in Sichuan Mingzhong city. The tower was 12 floors in the past 400+ years and now only 6 levels left.
Tags: 7.8 earthquake, Blog & Blogger, china earthquake, sichuan earthquake, wenchuan, wenchuan earthquake
Grigo
The roads from Chengdu to Jiuzhaigou are blocked and are expected to remain that way for some time. The best way to get to Jiuzhaigou is to fly although the government has warned against any unnecessary travel to the whole region.
Jiuzhaigou did not experience any significant damage during the earthquake. No hotels or businesses appear to have been damaged. Mobile phone and internet connections are still working but some places have no electricity at the moment.
Inside Jiuzhaigou National Park there have been no major rock slides or land slips. Falling rocks from the cliffs did happen during the big earthquake but no injuries or significant damage have been reported.
Good to hear that the national park is not damaged seriously. People in forum (Bbs) esitmated that there are more than 100k tourists in the whole West Sichuan touristic region, much more than the official number of less than 10k in Songpan and jiuzhaigou. Hope they have enough food and water and can get home sooner.
It is good to know that Jiuzhaigou heavenly earth scenery is not affected by the earthquake. I just went there last September. Mother Nature can be quite nasty at times…
We arrived back home from Chengdu and Jiuzhaigou a week before the earthquake and feel so lucky. Our hearts ache for those caught up in this disaster as there is nothing we can do apart from donate money. Our guide in Chengdu is now out of work as there are no tourists and is helping the homeless, but we have not heard from the guide in Jiuzhaigou although we are told he is safe. The week we had in both the areas was amazing and included some highlights of our Chinese holiday.
We are making a trip to lanzhoou next week, with our 10 years old son. just wonder if there are any cause of safety concern?
Jeff,
Lanzhou is quite far away from the earthquake center, and i think it is pretty save. But try to avoid to travel around South Gansu where is a very popular and beautiful travel area.
There are some nice places around Lanzhou: Dunhuang(敦煌), Mogao Caves (莫高窟), Mingshashan Mountain (鸣沙山). Enjoy your trip.