Heavy hearts, but solidarity in Xining

XINING - As I stepped out of the Xining airport terminal on Friday morning, I felt a strange sense of unfamiliarity - though I had been here just last autumn with my wife.

The chilly air with the dazzling sunshine, I remember, but the 33 ambulances parked in a sealed area a stone's throw away, besides the grim faces all around, I don't.

That's when it hit me. This trip to cover the 7.1 magnitude Yushu earthquake, which has, at press time, left some 1,144 people dead is going to be nothing like the vacation with my wife.