All 6-year-old Xinrui wanted for Children's Day was to live in a house with her parents and grandmother.
Her wish came true four days later, when the family was given the key to a 20-sq-m room in Qinjianrenjia, a major shelter area for more than 6,000 earthquake victims in Dujiangyan.
Qinjianrenjia contains up to 200 mobile homes and can house up to 14,000 people. In addition to necessary facilities, such as a pharmacy, dinning hall and shower rooms, it features a career center, library and schools, making it more like a village.
Yesterday, this "village" welcomed German Vice-Chancellor and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. The official's first stop was Qinjianrenjia's middle school, where more than 400 students study.
Steinmeier scrawled a message on the blackboard of a class of more than 30 6th-graders: "We hope you can complete the mission of rebuilding your homeland shortly."
Steinmeier also said he believed the village was "really well done".
"I am impressed by their ambition (in building the shelter), and they work day and night," he said, adding the administration in Qinjianrenjia was also very impressive.
For Xinrui's mother, the 20-sq-m room is at least a place where the family can settle down for the next three to five years.
"We had moved many times and lived in different kinds of tents before June 5. This is a place that for us feels like home - albeit a temporary one," Zhang Jing said.
Her family lived in the city center until the quake devastated the 38-year-old's apartment building. Only a double bed, a TV set, a wardrobe, and some tables and chairs withstood the disaster.
Because most of the furniture and bedding in her new home was donated, she said it's a place where she could feel the sincere love of others.
"I had donated some money to flood-affected regions several years before. But this is the time when you can really feel the whole nation cares about you and is helping you," she said.
In addition to donating money and goods, many people have come to offer helping hands.
Special police from Kunming are conducting 24-hour patrols along with local militia and police.
Chengdu Construction Engineering Group has also constructed dozens of mobile homes on the other side of the village.
But Zhang's greatest concern is that her daughter was supposed to attend the prestigious Tuanjie Primary School in September, but the quake rendered the building structurally unsound.
"I don't know where to send Xinrui, because I don't know if the school would be repaired or not," Zhang said, adding the primary school in Qinjianrenjia will soon close as most of the damaged local schools will reopen later this month.
But Zhang might take encouragement from the words of German Ambassador to China Michael Schaefer, who told Xinrui as he held her in his arms and gently kissed her cheek: "We have decided to donate (to build) eight schools, including primary ones and middle schools, in the quake-struck zone."
The provincial authorities would decide the schools' locations, he added.
Source: China Daily
|
Comment
Tell A Friend
Print Format
Save Article