Bike tour director reports from China quake zone

Peter Snow Cao founded Bike China Adventures in 1998 and set up his base of operations in Chengdu, the capital city of the Sichuan province that was rocked by Monday's 7.8 earthquake.

He e-mailed out this report earlier in the week about the state of emergency in this city about 50 miles from the epicenter. Most businesses are closed and many people are camping out for fear of staying inside. I contacted him and he said it was OK to reprint it here at Biking Bis.

While you read this, keep in mind that the Chinese state media reports the death toll could soar to 50,000 people. Some 20,000 are confirmed dead and 25,000 are believed buried in the rubble of towns leveled by the quake.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has launched a global appeal for $19 million to support the expected 100,000 survivors over the next 12 months (press release).

Emergency relief will form the focus of the first phase of the proposed operation, helping to purchase, amongst other things, 3,000 tents, 100,000 quilts, 100,000 food parcels and 2,000 boxes of water purification tablets. Long term relief will go toward building at least 1,000 homes.

Residents of the US can donate to the relief effort in China through the American Red Cross (tax deductible). If you're from another country, check the list at International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Peter's e-mail:

Shaky hasty greetings from Chengdu!

Thanks all for your concern and prayers.

We are fine, thank God.  Reminiscent of SF in '89.  About the same size,
though I was farther from the epicenter this time, about 50 miles.

The magnitude of the earthquake was 7.8 (considered violent to extreme)
at the epicenter, and about 5.5 (considered strong) in Chengdu.

The city faired very well.  Most of the building here are relatively new
and supposedly constructed to 7.0 seismic standards.  I am a registered
civil engineer in the state of California and closely watched and
photographed the complete construction of the 18-story building we live
in.  While I did not do any seismic calculations, I can attest the the
fact that the construction included numerous core tests for footings,
the footings were indeed place deep and broad, and most importantly
their was a significant amount of steel reinforcing bars placed
throughout the super-structure.

Damage in my building was limited to minor cracks in the walls where the
filler brick abutted the the reinforced concrete super-structure.  I was
home alone at the time of the quake, and it was quite exciting.  We live
on the fifth floor and I was out of the building in less than a minute.

Our compound is usually quiet in the afternoon, but at that time all 15
buildings emptied with about half in their pajamas and barefoot and a
few just wrapped up in a bedsheet.  It was amazing to see how many
people were at home at that time of day and the number of nappers.

Soon afterward, I went for a ride around town on my bike, and tried,
unsuccessfully, to get cash from an ATM using a foreign bank card
(communication lines were closed).  The CCB ATM I use will usually allow
withdrawals of up to 5000 RMB (about US$750), but at that time it was
limited to 500 RMB.

The most astonishing thing was that the streets were packed with people.
  EVERYONE was outside and most were in the middle of the street away
from the buildings.  In this city of six million you always see a lot of
people, but at that time, I really felt the crush.

Traffic was gridlocked with every man for himself and emergency vehicles
were stranded in the quagmire for most of the afternoon and those who
managed to find a few feet to accelerate were more mad than usual.

Outlying areas closer to the epicenter were devastated.  The epicenter
was about 50 miles from Chengdu, which sits in a giant bowl, seismically
quite dangerous.  The cities of Dujiangyan, Wenchuan, and Beichuan all
had significant damage.  Most heartbreaking was that many schools filled
with students and hospitals collapsed.  Rescue efforts are ongoing.  The
exposed construction debris showed minimal use of reinforcing steel in
these buildings, and were clearly not built to withstand any sort of
earthquake.

The current situation is that most people are afraid of staying indoors,
especially the older generation who experienced the earthquakes during
the mid-70's where entire cities were flattened.  Consequently, most
people living in high rise buildings fled to the outskirts of the city
and camped in their cars or by the roadside.

Schools and most businesses are closed as are hotels.  The people
staying in the hotels, including foreigners, were turned out on the
streets with no options.

I asked Peter about the future of his bicycle tours, which range all across China. He said that no present tours were impact, although two of them felt the quake.

He said plans for future tours may have to be altered if the roads cannot be repaired in time.