County rises from ruins after quake

Life in a tent

The menu for Long's family these days leans heavily on rice, stewed cabbage, eggplant and potatoes, plus the spicy, acidic chopped pickles prepared in the manner of Long's Dai ethnicity. Drinking water is supplied free by the local government.

The tent came from the government, too, two days after the quake. Until then, Long's family shared a tent bought from a local shop, eight people from three families crowding together on three beds.

The county set up 771 temporary living places for the quake victims and the Ministry of Civil Affairs said Friday that 11,235 tents had been set up. About 300 tents were erected in the county square primarily for residents, like Long, of the downtown area. Others are pitched in open fields.

Water and electricity were restored three days after the earthquake, but there's no service in the tents.

Some children bathe in the Daying River, which runs through the county into Myanmar. Others whose houses were not severely damaged went back home for quick cleanups. People whose villages were severely damaged can only heat water from the river to clean their faces and feet.

With daytime temperatures averaging 25 C, living outside brings more bugs than cold. Many families bought insecticide from stores that reopened a day after the quake.

"There are mosquitoes at night and the noises wake me up sometimes," Long said without complaint. "It's not too bad. At least no one in my family was hurt."

Being neighborly

Free meals are provided by disaster relief troops and local residents in several downtown areas, but many families insist on cooking for themselves. Long's family is one of them - "giving it to those who are in greater need", she said.

The response by residents living near Yingjiang was quick and spontaneous.

"We are from Dongbin village and the food is for free," said Li Limei, a Dai woman who was among 20 people from Dongbin who were delivering food one day.

She can speak only a few Mandarin words and showed three fingers when she was asked how many people accepted their food. "Three hundred," she added, and said that people from another nearby village would deliver free meals the next day.

In a county with a total population of 270,000, about 60 percent belong to ethnic minorities, chiefly Dai and Jingpo. Dai people generally follow Buddhism, which emphasizes equality and goodness.

In the days following the earthquake, local Dai people organized several teams to provide free meals in the hospital and downtown areas.

Helping hands

Volunteers come from a broader swath of the area as well. They include more than 2,000 residents of the quake-hit area, most of them students.

And more than 200 joined teams organized by the Yingjian branch of the Communist Youth League on the day the quake hit. Branch secretary Yue Maru told China Daily that the group collected 1,643 volunteers, the youngest 8 years old, by Thursday.