Performancing Metrics

Chinese official charts Bohol visit of Sichuan children

Written by Administrator Sunday, 21 December 2008 03:36

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol – Chinese Consul General Li Qinfeng visited Bohol recently to help chart the itinerary of the visit early next year of 100 children from earthquake-stricken Sichuan province in China.

Bohol Gov. Erico Aumentado received Qinfeng in his office, the embassy’s Third Secretary Kong Xiangwen, Policy Affairs Liaison Officer Liu Lujun and Jameson Ong, assistant to the chair of the Liwayway Group, and instructed his staff to coordinate with the officials.

Earlier, President Arroyo had designated Liwayway Marketing Corp. (LMC) chair Carlos Chan as Special Envoy to China.

With LMC as support group for the government, he is coordinating the visit of the children who lost loved ones in the May 12, 2008 magnitude 8 earthquake that killed almost 70,000 people and left over 18,000 more missing, not to mention the destruction that leveled 80 percent of structures in some places including Chengdu due to massive landslides.

President Arroyo visited Chengdu, the Sichuan capital, last Aug. 7 and met with President Hu Jintao in Beijing on Aug. 9.

Through him, she invited 100 children to the Philippines for a tour, cultural exchange and interaction with children their age to help them cope with their shock, trauma and grief.

Qinfeng told Governor Aumentado that the visiting children are 11 to 16 years old.

The governor said he will match the 62 girls and 38 boys with children their age who will meet them at the airport here. The governor will lead welcoming officials at the reception line.

After checking in at the Bohol Tropics Resort, the delegation will proceed to the Bohol Cultural Center where they will be given time for interaction and games.

There, Aumentado will formally welcome them while the head of the Chinese delegation will give his response.

The group will then proceed to the Bohol Tropics for lunch. After a nap, they will travel to Loboc town to view the old church, the tarsier, interact with another set of children their age, watch the Loboc Children’s Choir and Loboc Youth Ambassador Band perform at the Loboc Children’s Theater and go on a night cruise on the now magically lighted Loboc River – courtesy of a donation from Chan.

The air-conditioned theater, equipped with top-of-the-line sound system, acoustic interior and lights, is also a Chan donation even as the choir and the band are his beneficiaries – among others, he sponsored their trips to China to perform at music festivals.

The following day is set aside for trips to the Chocolate Hills and to the Bohol Beach Club where the children will have time to enjoy themselves at the beach before flying back to Manila. Sichuan is a landlocked province.

The May 12 earthquake is now considered the most damaging earthquake since the 1976 Tangshan disaster that occurred in the northeastern part of China, near the coast.

Followed by a major aftershock 15 hours later, the two Tangshan quakes killed over 240,000 people, although some estimates of the death toll are as high as 655,000.

Over 799,000 people were injured. Aftershocks in the 5.0-5.5 range continued after the main shock. Damage extended as far as Beijing. This is probably the greatest death toll from an earthquake in the last four centuries, and the second greatest in recorded history.