JIANLI, China (AP) – An influx of rescue workers, journalists and victims’ relatives is putting the sleepy town of Jianli on the map in a way that lifelong resident Tao Gengsheng never thought he’d see.
As the closest town to the site of last week’s Yangtze River cruise ship disaster, Jianli is the staging area for what began as a rescue effort and has now shifted to identifying the remains of more than 450 people aboard the Eastern Star, which capsized in a freak tornado. Just 14 people survived China’s worst maritime disaster in nearly seven decades.
“I’ve never seen so much activity. And I’ve never seen so many foreigners,” Tao tells an American journalist standing beside his cart laden with bananas, apples and melons.
Signs of the influx of aid are evident in the dozens of army trucks lined up along the embankment and the convoys heading to the riverbank where the bodies of those caught inside the four-deck vessel were being offloaded on Saturday. Individuals and groups looking to help, part of a wave of disaster volunteering that has arisen in recent years, have also flocked in to offer their services.
With a population of 1.5 million in the town and surrounding county, Jianli is fairly typical of China’s fast-developing rural areas. Cars, buses, scooters and electric bicycles cruise slowly down the wide streets of the new town, honking at anything that moves. In the narrower lanes of the old town, recorded advertisements blare from shops selling off-brand clothing and electronics, while the musical styles of the many patrons of restaurant and guesthouse karaoke parlors assault the ears of passers-by.