Tourists Caught Up in Asia’s Natural Disasters

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The last week or two have been filled with natural disasters in the Asian region, and even now it’s hard to get really accurate information about the outcomes and effects. But for tourists traveling in China - and to a lesser extent in Burma - these natural catastrophes are definitely not what they planned for on their vacations.

On May 12, an earthquake register 7.9 hit the Sichuan province of China, in the south of the country. It was strong enough that office buildings in far-away Beijing and Shanghai also swayed, and it is easily the most disastrous earthquake to hit China in over thirty years. An aftershock of magnitude 6.0 came five days later. There aren’t any official numbers yet, but tens of thousands of people have died and many are still missing or trapped, and almost 5 million are homeless.

Of course there have been a number of foreign tourists caught up in this earthquake nightmare as well. Groups of American and British tourists visiting remote panda centers were trapped after landslides and although their families thought the worst for most of the week, they were safe and finally rescued from the remote region by helicopter. A missing German tourist was also found alive in a remote village. As if the destruction and lack of utilities doesn’t make life difficult enough for rescuers and carers, problems with communication systems during such a natural disaster make it difficult to find out who is still alive.

Over in Burma, the effects of the Cyclone Nargis are still far-reaching and also difficult to get concrete information about.The most affected area is in the south-west of the country, and the best guess about how many people have been killed puts it at around 100,000. Since the current political situation has led many potential tourists to stay away from Burma, there have been far fewer foreign tourists affected by this disaster but a number of foreigners are still unaccounted for. A lack of information isn’t helped by the resistence to allowing foreigners in to provide aid and assistance.

Traveling anywhere is a risk for tourists. Some who have returned safely from China after being stranded by the earthquake’s affects said that the local people helped them tremendously, but there in remote regions practical assistance was hard to come by. Giving aid to NGOs that are working to restore some kind of normal life to these regions is perhaps the best way to help out.