May 17 2008. Two British tourists this evening told journalists how their trip to Wolong panda reserve turned to terror when the Sichuan earthquake struck last Monday.

British tourists Judy Ling Wong (center) and Penny Edwards (right)

Penny Edwards and Judy Ling Wong were traveling together in a large tour group that arrived at the Wolong panda reserve at mid-day on Monday. Ms Edwards described how she was about to take a picture of Ms Wong hugging a large panda when the earthquake struck.

Terrifying journey

The panda reserve is in a narrow ravine not more than forty meters wide in places and the quake hurled large rocks and debris around the terrified tourists. The powerful tremors were followed by intermittent aftershocks.

After they managed to scramble back to their bus, there followed a terrifying journey past landslides and rock falls to safer terrain outside the ravine.

The tour group spent the next three nights sleeping on the bus in the car park of their badly damaged hotel. Everyone lived on a monotonous diet of rice porridge and the tourists were rationed to half a bottle of water a day until villagers realized their plight and led them to the local spring.

Two days after quake the animals returned

There were some touching moments; one evening teenagers from the hotel dance troupe performed a traditional Tibetan dance for the tourists. Ms Edwards described how on the second day after the quake, chickens and dogs began to return to the farms they had fled. There were even moments of humor as when a group of local youths caught and ate the fish from the hotel's ornamental pond.

The tourists counted themselves lucky to find themselves in a place with a resourceful local army unit who together with the police, organized basic supplies and provided tents for the local people whose traditionally built houses had almost all collapsed into piles of rubble.

Morse code

After a little over a day technicians from the panda reserve managed to rig up an electric light in the car park and even a television that the villagers crowded round, eager for news. After watching television news the tourists began to realize the extent of the devastation in other places and prepared themselves for a long wait to be rescued.

However, although conventional outbound communications had been cut, the army unit managed to improvise a morse code communications device and transmitted news of the situation to headquarters.

Helicopter rescue

Soon afterwards a helicopter arrived but was unable to land and instead dropped supplies of water and noodles. A second flight found a safe landing spot and took some seriously injured villagers for treatment.

On the fourth day the tourists' nightmare ended as quickly as it had begun when they were told to grab their passports and a few essentials and board a bus that drove at high speed to where three helicopters were waiting to fly them to Chengdu.

Aid for earthquake victims

Ms Edwards, a psychiatric nurse from Cardiff, told how her training helped her cope with the traumatic experience. She was full of praise for both the local authorities who had coped well with few resources and the villagers who had readily shared their meager supply of food.

Judy Ling Wong, who was born in Hong Kong, is the director of the Black Environmental Network (BEN), an organization that encourages ethnic minorities to participate in environmental projects. In 2000 she was awarded the honorary title of Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in recognition of her work. It so happens, she said, that in the district of North Wales where she lives, the largest ethic minority is overseas Chinese. On her return she plans to immediately start working with the community to raise money for the victims of the earthquake, and the Wolong panda reserve.

(China.org.cn by John Sexton May 17, 2008)