I was sitting on a particularly wobbly stool yesterday afternoon when things got even wobblier. I looked out of the window, but couldn't see buildings swaying, and after a minute the strange sensation passed. I thought nothing more of it until, a few minutes later, James texted me to say, Did you feel it?
'We had an earthquake!' Rachel declared when she got back home. She and Alistair described sitting in their classrooms and the children noticing that the lights were swaying to and fro, and pointing it out to teachers. A few moments later, messengers came to the classrooms to say they were to be evacuated. Rachel, whose class had just sat down to start on a practice science SAT, were only too pleased to be able to abandon it.
People working in high rise buildings in Beijing report swaying that was truly alarming. Nevertheless, today we realise that we felt just the flutter of a hugely powerful earthquake nearly a thousand miles away. Already, the death toll is climbing to ten thousand, and there is as yet no news of Wenchuan, at the epicentre.
The television has wall to wall coverage of the rescue effort – the authorities are acting fast, and have released news fast. They know they have to get this right. First for practical reasons: This is Yangtze country, and the dams along the river are notoriously vulnerable to earthquakes, landslides, and then to tidal waves. Second, because many people are dissatisfied with the government on a whole range of issues, rising prices high on the list. The Communist Party doesn't retain power through a popular vote, but popular revolt could destroy them. Third, because whatever the Communist Party's mistakes, they will be magnified in Olympics Year. Fourth, because earthquakes are hugely symbolic in China. In 1976, the Tangshan Earthquake killed nearly a quarter of a million people. It is tied inexorably in the minds of the Chinese with the end of the rule of Chairman Mao and the dawn of the reform period.