Remembering that week in 2008 when the whole city felt like one big family

It was right after the big earthquake in Sichuan, and I was living in Chengdu at the time. For about a week, everyone just dropped what they were doing to help. My apartment building set up a donation point in the lobby, and we filled three whole trucks with bottled water, instant noodles, and blankets. The most striking thing was the line of taxis at the edge of town, all volunteering to drive supplies to the affected areas for free. You'd see people in the street, strangers, just checking if each other's families were okay. The normal city noise was gone, replaced by a quiet kind of teamwork. It was a terrible reason for it, but I've never felt a stronger sense of community anywhere else. Does anyone else who was there during that time have a small moment from those days that stuck with them?

3 comments

3 Comments

jana_hernandez25d ago

My building in Chengdu had a volunteer cooking station in the parking lot. We used big woks from a closed restaurant to make fried rice for rescue workers heading north. I remember one older neighbor, Mr. Li, who brought his entire personal stash of cooking oil, maybe fifteen bottles, and just lined them up without saying a word. That image of those bottles on the curb stuck with me more than anything. It was everyone giving whatever they actually had, not just what was easy.

patricia_wells25d ago

Sounds staged to me honestly.

river_scott25d ago

Fifteen bottles of his own oil... that's just wild. Mr. Li didn't even say anything.