Qinghai pavilion at Shanghai Expo mourns quake victims
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One week after a devastating earthquake struck northwest China's Qinghai Province, as the entire nation observed an official day of mourning, there was also one corner of the Shanghai World Expo Park where people comforted each other in tears.
At the Qinghai Pavilion, located on the first floor of the national pavilion of China, a brief mourning ceremony was held Wednesday morning. Some 50 people, including staff from the nearby Shaanxi and Gansu pavilions, attended the ceremony.
The 7.1-magnitude quake struck Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Yushu in southern Qinghai on April 14. It has left at least 2,064 people dead, 175 missing, and 12,135 injured by Tuesday.
Li Yalin, executive deputy curator of Qinghai Pavilion, said she and her colleagues hurried back to Qinghai from Shanghai to prepare quake-relief materials right after the quake.
"We had to go back. They lacked tents, water, food... they lacked everything," she said, adding she only went back to Shanghai to continue preparation for the Expo after spending the first days after the quake in Qinghai.
Xi Ming, a guide at Shaanxi Pavilion, cried when all the people stood in silent tribute to the victims. "I never thought that I would feel so close to the victims and the other quake-affected people," she said.
All entertainment shows at the Park were canceled Wednesday, including an opera show at the Shaanxi Pavilion.
"I think it is what we should do," Xi said.
Xu Feijie, a guide at the Qinghai Pavilion of Sala ethnicity, usually wears ethnic clothes, an emerald green dress with a cap and a waistcoat, to do reception work. But she was in a dark coat Wednesday.
"Because I am from Qinghai, I feel the victims' pain more deeply," she said.
Li Yalin said as the source of the Yangtze River, Qinghai has always had a connection with Shanghai, which lies at the end of the river. With the Expo, the two have combined more tightly in a special way.
"In the past, many people had no idea about the source of the three rivers - the Yellow River, the Yangtze River, and the Mekong River. Now they have come to know by two means - the World Expo and the earthquake," Li said.
Since Tuesday, the first day of testing operations for the Park, many visitors have came to the Qinghai Pavilion for information about Yushu, said Li Yalin.
"A special video about Yushu's culture and landscape before the earthquake will soon be played in our pavilion," she said.
Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination organized donations from staff working inside the park on Wednesday.
Huang Shouhu, a donation organizer, said "we will help Qinghai demonstrate its best during the World Expo and make more people pay attention to the after-quake reconstruction of Yushu. I also hope the quake-affected people, especially children, can visit the Expo during their summer vacation."
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