Over 8533 people dead. I first was informed around 2:59pm Beijing Time when my fellow American friend SMS'ed me saying he felt an earthquake at our office building in Hangzhou. Then I received another message from a colleague claiming similarly. I was at the outskirs of town at the time in a meeting and being on level ground I didn't feel anything, but my colleagues were up on the 7th floor back at the office, so they could definitely feel the shake.

Shortly after another colleague informed more people, and everyone tried to call their loved ones, but nearing the quake phone calls were not going through, possibly due to the cell towers being destroyed by the quake.  After that period, we had to resume the meeting as there were no specific news coming out yet due to it being so recent. And just a bit earlier this evening, several hours after the incident, one of them received a text message saying that 900 middle school children were buried alive at school. That's just shocking... What can one say when one hears something like that? It feels as if it is a tragedy out of proportion, upon so many who's times still had so far to go. So fast, so swift, that only now it makes me think back to New Orleans, and yet I know this has taken far more lives than New Orleans ever did.

Sina.com.cn has a special page for the earthquake (Simplified Chinese)

The Premiere Wen Jia Bao has already made move over to the affected areas, one of the fastest responses I've ever heard of. (Much faster than George W. with 9/11...) I'll see what help I can possibly give, money, food, clothes, etc (if possible), for the affected and also not forgetting that we have an Alibaba office out in Chengdu, Sichuan and the welfare of those colleagues is not known to me (at least) for now.

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