CHINA> National
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CHINA> National
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Sea lions kiss away quake memories
By Chen Jia (China Daily/Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-01-30 07:30
Xu Jiao, a 15-year-old girl from Qingchuan county, Sichuan province, seemed nervous as she slowly stepped closer to Max, a sea lion housed in the Beijing Aquarium on Wednesday. After all, luck hadn't really favored her off late. The massive May 12 earthquake interrupted the playful teenager's life. Her school, which she loved, was razed to the ground. Her home was no more. It was understandable Xu did not know what to expect from a mammal she was seeing for the first time. But then Max slowly raised his whiskered face and planted a kiss on her cheek. It was in Xu's words, the "most exhilarating moment" of her life. "At first, I was a little frightened. I had never seen a sea lion before. I didn't know what it would do. But when he kissed me, I felt on top of the world," she said. Xu was one of the 36 middle school students who were invited to the Beijing Aquarium on Wednesday to celebrate the Spring Festival a little differently from they had expected. All of the students came to study in the capital last autumn after their school was destroyed in last May's 8-magnitude quake, which left more than 70,000 people dead. Xu, along with the other students, even got a chance to dance with the dolphins. The students were then taken to the Panda House in the Beijing Zoo, where they saw the eight pandas that were transported from Sichuan for the Beijing Olympic Games in August last year. "It's so different to celebrate the Lunar New Year in Beijing. Everything is so novel," Xu said. The China Youth Development Foundation had earlier planned to take the 36 students back to their hometown by bus before the Spring Festival, but could not due to the heavy snowfall in Sichuan. "So, we planned a special Lunar New Year celebration for them right here in Beijing," said Cai Peng, an official with the foundation. More than 300 people volunteered to make the children feel at home, he said. "Some 18 families signed up to invite the kids over for dinner at their homes between Jan 25 and Jan 31." Liu Qianying, a middle school student from Beijing, invited two of the 36 kids to have dinner with her family on Lunar New Year's Eve. "We had prepared a variety of spicy dishes that are popular in Sichuan to make them feel as if they were eating in their own house, with their own family," Liu said. Zheng Wenjing, the chief of volunteers, who lives in Chaoyang district, said: "So many families in my community, Hepingli, wanted to invite these children to their homes that I didn't even get a chance to cook a meal for them, and eat with them." |
