A fairly powerful earthquake happened just when we were waiting to move on the tarmac bus at Xi'an Airport. I thought the bus was jumping up and down due to the lowering hydraulics (as they do these days). Then airport officials came running out of the terminal and screamed that we get out of the bus and move onto the tarmac away from the building. General panic.
It seems the epicentre was less than 250km from where I was in Xi'an - Chengdu is the next capital city of the neighbouring province. Reports are now coming in that thousands of people have died. 900 schoolchildren buried by their school buildings.
Here is a link. (see later post)
I flew to Xi'an this weekend (and survived an earthquake!) Xi'an (pronounced "Shjiaan") was great. Here's me with the terracotta warriors. 
And a special video of the fabulous Muslim Quarter in the old walled city - Beiyanmen Street. Most of my wants from visiting China were fulfilled in this one city! There are no less than 65 photos in a slideshow, if you click here.
