China Expat is a cultural and literary forum for expatriates interested in China and has been published by Asia Briefing Ltd since 2001. The sites resident China culture writers have included such expatriate luminaries as 
Earthquake Preparedness for Expats
Our sympathy for strangers knows limits. The media’s hunger for fresh stories knows none. There is no word in English for the strange admixture of bitter gratitude elicited when a fresh tragedy prevents people from forgetting one slightly less fresh; the Germans probably have one. But the 6.0 aftershock in Sichuan yesterday, near the Gansu border, kept the earthquake in headlines worldwide, albeit trumped on some news sites by the Phoenix’ photos of Mars.
Two weeks is a long time for any event to dominate world headlines. An alien invasion would probably be relegated to page two by a month’s coverage. As for Sichuan, outside of China, assigned reporters try to keep us focused with the fantastic – lakes made overnight! An eighty-year old paraplegic pulled from the rubble after 11 days’ entrapment!
Meanwhile, the suffering increases inversely to waning international media attention. Five million homeless. Five thousand orphans. Looming epidemic and economic devastation. What’s a conscientious China expat to do? Commemorate the dead, comfort the survivors, and learn. If you’ve given all you can to a reputable charity like Care for Children , and know that going to Sichuan to pitch-in would be more of a distraction for locals than a help, then the next step is making peace with the fact that in much of China, you may be done in not by hepatitis or a hasty cab driver (heaven forbid), but by an earthquake (fault zones forbid).
Western China was getting shoved about by the Tibetan Plateau for epochs before either had animals on them silly enough to argue about who they belonged to. This seismic shoving match continues, as a result of India’s timeless efforts to visit Europe. Thus, of the 23 major Chinese earthquakes in the last one hundred years (a geological blink), nine have been in Sichuan and Yunnan. Another six were in Gansu, Xinjiang, and Qinghai, geographically discrete but geologically part of the same tectonic fracas. The following graphic, locating eleven twentieth-century earthquakes and the May 12th quake, shows the preponderance of southwestern seismic activity.
But note also that one struck between Nanning and Guangzhou in ’69, and another near Fuzhou in 1918. The precarious earth of China’s northeast is marked not just by a red dot for Tangshan’s catastrophic quake of ’76, but also by one for the Haicheng quake a year earlier.
These were earthquakes of historical note, mind you – there have been plenty of others in China which a scholar may not bother putting on his chart, but which stand out as a singular misfortune in the lives of those who experienced them. This graphic puts things in better perspective:
Now it should be apparent that the only regions of China where one may rationally discount his danger from earthquakes are the grassy stretches of Inner Mongolia, the frozen wastes of Heilongjiang, and the very heart of China’s chicken breast, a second-tier sheltering strip from Hangzhou to Guiyang that includes Nanchang and Changsha. To judge by the graphic, Taiwan is virtually uninsurable.
For all that, rare is the expat who factors earthquakes into his choice of a China post. Those sensible enough to comprehend how vulnerable we are to the whims of nature seldom leave their homes, let alone their countries. With that said, one wonders at the use of admonishing the expat to have an emergency preparedness plan and supplies. If you were in a major Chinese city struck by an earthquake, and you lived unharmed through the shaking and collapsing, your chief concern would quickly become potable water. Authorities recommend having at least five gallons stashed away for yourself and anyone else in your charge. These authorities also take it for granted that you keep a first-aid kit. The freewheeling China expat, without a mug to his name, let alone an emergency stash of water with which to fill it, is outside of these authorities’ purview. But those who make a home of China for the foreseeable future, undaunted by the prospect of an earthquake yet not heedless of it, might do well to check this site.
Related posts:
- All Expats in China are Crazy
- All Expats in China are Crazy II
- All Expats in China are Crazy III
- Are China Expats De-Facto Colonialists?
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It’s no doubt an informative and impressive post. I am a bit sad to read about earthquake occurred in China. It’s very sad that it has been happening there for a very long time. 642-444 dumps Earthquake preparedness refers to a range of procedures considered to assist in earthquake prone areas to get ready for major earthquakes. thanks….