April 18, 2010

Early Sunday morning, Lucky 7, several members of the JC staff and I headed to the airport. Blue sky, sunny day, but my concentration was focused on everyone in Yushu. I was going there, a place 3,905 meters high (2nd highest elevation in China). Only 39 planes are allowed to fly in with four landing strips in the airport. No evening flights are allowed because of possible danger. Yushu, literally translating to "jade tree" is considered the last paradise in China because of its beautiful scenary. Yushu is also where the recent earthquake in China struck, leaving 1,484 dead, 1297 seriously injured, 11,849 injured and 332 missing as of 4/18/10.

When I heard about the earthquake, I was in Taiwan location scouting - immediately called my staff to start buying supplies to help the victims. When my friends heard that I wanted to help, they started donating too. Since the response was so good, I decided to change my route. I would rent a plane to fly all the supplies over to the earthquake site. However when I flew to Shanghai for Expo rehearsals, my staff told me it was not that easy. We needed to apply for special permission to fly from Shanghai to Yushu. I said "nothing is impossible" and soon we received the special grant to fly.

My staff and I planned very carefully a strategy to fly in a variety of supplies to Yushu, such as down jackets, rations, water and blankets. At the same time, I was recording a song for the Asia games, rehearsing for the Shanghai Expo and having meetings for my new movie. Within 24 hours of receiving the grant for the special route, supplies were flown in from Zhengzhou, Guangzhou and Beijing. Altogether, we had 15 tons of supplies which were too heavy to load onto the plane. So I bought with me everything I could without going over the weight limit. It is sad that the world has so many natural disasters. Every time I help, I am able to go in and help faster. That means I am gaining more experience.


First, I had to stop at Xining then fly to Yushu. Two of my Lucky 7 boys He Xiang and Hai Xiang, my videographer X Lee, my manager Yuen Nong and a reporter, Dan Dan flew with me. Yushu's roads were all blocked and had a lot of traffic. We had to wait hours before we could move. Everyone started getting affected by the high altitude. People had headaches, they were breathing hard, their legs were weak. Some even vomited. After I unloaded all the supplies from the plane to the trucks, I waited until everyone was gone. I wanted to do more than just arrive, unload the supplies and leave. I wanted to go in and see what was really going on. Celebrities who don't have experience think that going into a disaster zone is doing a good thing - but it actually causes more problems because everyone is so excited that they are there. So I wanted and quietly went in to see what happened.





With so much traffic, I decided to walk to the earthquake site. On the road, we bumped into a doctor and nurse who asked us what was going on and why we were there. They were so grateful that I came to help that they quickly let us use their ambulance and thats how we got into the earthquake site.



Just when we were almost there, we hit traffic again. There was a lot of security to prevent chaos. I decided to walk again. My staff said I should put a mask and hat on so no one would recognize me. If they did, it would create more chaos. We walked for hours on top of rooftops of houses that have fallen down. It was not easy, not like a flat road that we always walk on. Everyone who survived were now living in tents. Even though some buildings looked perfectly fine, it was a mess inside. People lived in tents because they were scared that another earthquake would hit and they would be safer in tents instead of a house, that could possibly crash down on them.










Standing on top of the fallen rooftops were dogs, who thought their master was still alive. They were very protective of their territory so we tried our best not to step on their houses. They said over 100 people have already been bitten by dogs in Yushu.
 
It was already night time and we didn't eat or drink all day. They gave us a big piece of "man to" (bread) that was hard and dry. We also had cruellers and pickled vegetables. They offered to give us canned meat but I didn't eat it. The Yushu people have been saving the meat since the earthquake. Originally, I was supposed to fly back to Xining to spend the night there at a hotel. However, since it took 5 hours to get back to the airport, we were going to stay in Yushu for the night.


It was already 9 pm when I went to see the kids at the orphanage. Using candlelight to guide us, I went into a room full of children. They told me it was a big present that I came to visit so I sang my song "Country" (Guo Jia) for them with my two Lucky 7 boys He Xiang and Hai Xiang. We taught them the sign language too. All the kids have not showered for days but I still hugged them. The youngest kids, a boy of 9 and a girl of 10, told me that because of me, they've been picking up water bottles everyday outside of the orphanage everyday and flattening them to throw it away.


By the time we got to the airport, it was 2am. We slept on the floor of the VIP lounge. It was 0 degrees Celsius and we only had 3 blankets to split among the nine of us. I used my shoes as a pillow and tried to fall asleep. I soon realized that I chose the wrong spot to sleep. I slept next to the doorway and there was a gap between the door and the floor so the wind blew in. Also everyone was snoring so I couldn't fall asleep. Actually, even though I closed my eyes, I didn't fall asleep at all that night.









The next day, I wanted to head back to Xining as soon as possible so I could avoid everyone in the daylight. During the day, if people could see me, then it would be a mess. It would be hurting instead of helping. They had a military pane ready to go and I said, "OK, lets go!" When we got to the plane, there were so many supplies and people that we were overloaded by 5 tons. So I said that the 9 of us should go down. Everybody on the plane had a mission whether they were patients, volunteers or doctors. So we went back into the waiting lounge.







I had a bottle of water and wanted to give it to one of the military guys. He refused and said that bottled water was reserved for the people of Yushu, that he only drank out of the tap water. I was so proud of him. To think about everything, what is going on in the world? We can't control the natural disaster, but we can control the human disaster. In fact, we create the human disaster! We have the ability to help people, but most of the time people are hurting people. We take years to build a house but one second to bomb it.




Finally, I got on the flight and returned to Xining. We had lunch and waited for another 5 hour trip. First we stopped in Xi'an and landed in Shanghai. On the flight, I realized that it's easy for groups to come together to plan an effort like this. However, I am just one person and I am still learning how to effectively donate and help. Getting back to Shanghai, I have been watching the telethons on TV. It brings tears to my eyes. A lot of people wanted me to attend the telethon show and perform, but I am actually planning something else. All the attention is on Yushu, but I can't forget about the drought in Yunan.

After my trip to Yushu, all my friends called and said that they wanted to donate even more! Haha not a problem because now, I realized, that I am a messenger too!

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