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Letter 37
Tuesday 18.05.10
My alarm sounds at 5.30 am. Now I have one hour and have time to get a
shower in this bathroom, where ALL works. Even the curtain between the
shower and the rest fits in both directions. And the fan! The only not
so good looking is, that the curtain has been hanging 7 cm higher once
and the holes for the screws are not covered.
There`s nobody in the reception, but I walk around talking loudly to
myself and get the idea to knock on 101, which is a kind of store room.
Immidiately she enters in her fine uniform and I can get going.
In the bus station the bus is ready. Almost all are on board. For once
the driver looks closely at my ticket and cares about where people sits,
at least those sitting in my seat. A lady, who keeps repeating that it`s
her seat, has to show her ticket and must afterwards move. At 7.00 we
take off.
In the first part there are a few oncoming trucks, the rest are
scattered minibusses and construction engines. The road is almost empty.
After that nothing has happened in this highly improved road, we`re in
Wenchuan at 8.10.
Just in front of a tunnel we stop 8.28.
After 4 min some oncoming cars come rolling, the tunnel has maybe just
one lane for the time being? But then all comes to a stop. After half an
hour a big machine that entered the tunnel by the left lane long time
ago comes back. It has maybe cleared the road? An endlessly row of
oncoming cars start to roll. After one hour our row starts moving. The
driver in the car in front has apparently gone to sleep, so our driver
has to run to him and bang on the car after the horn didn`t help.
The reason shall be found at the other side of the tunnel. A detour has
been established. A big truck has crushed a minor one, which lies
outside the road. It doesn`t look nice, but the dead or injured people
are gone.
At 10 we have a stop for toilet, it looks like the traffic is moving
normally now.
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| The traffic has come to a stop once again | The reason could be found at the other side |
It`s mostly down towards Yingxiu that landslides really have altered the look of
the mountains. This time I notice that the old road where I was riding my
bicycle two years ago is completely buried from landslides for more than one km.
The remains of a car can be seen. They have given up clearing the road. It`s
probably impossible. It`s here some of the 19.000 missing people are buried.
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| Here they've given up clearing road 213 | The remains are lefft as a monument |
We stop for 10 min in a tunnel - move on.
At two locations smashed houses have been left as monuments after the disaster.
At another spot a rock the size of a house lies close to the road. As other big
blocks it has got the inscription: 5.12.
At another location they`re capsulating the mountain with concrete ribs.
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| I don't know the reason for this | A rebuild Qiang village |
From Yingxiu the rest of the way is a sharp contrast. Just about half
an hour in the express way, and we`re in Chengdu.
I meet with my german friend, whose name I don`t know, again. He`s
deleted half of his photos from Jiuzhaigou by accident and is working
with different programmes to try to retrieve them.