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OAKLAND — Chinese language newspapers flew off the stands Monday at Park Grocery in Chinatown as residents with ties to China eagerly sought information on the magnitude 7.9 quake that struck Sichuan province in southwest China.
"Everybody is talking about it," said store owner Frank Szeto, who said Monday that he was selling about a third more newspapers than normal. The Sing Tao Daily and the World Journal, both blazoned with headlines about the quake, were selling fastest.
"It's big, big trouble for the people," said Shenghe Zou of Washington, who was visiting Oakland and bought a paper at the grocery, located at Ninth and Franklin streets. "Half of Asia felt the shaking."
Zou, who is from Sichuan, said, "The earthquake was close to my hometown."
The city of Mianyang, near the epicenter in Sichuan province, is Oakland's sister city, and Oakland City Councilmember Henry Chang said there was a great deal of destruction there. So far, the death toll in Mianyang is 7,000, he said Monday evening.
Chang, who has visited Mianyang and the Sichuan capital city Chengdu many times, said it took him more than an hour Monday to reach people there by phone.
"People are scared and are very upset," he said. "People are staying in the open, and most people will sleep outside tonight. The airport is closed at Chengdu."
Chang said one positive thing is that China's giant pandas, at least those in the Chengdu Giant Pandas
The habitat is under construction at the Oakland Zoo, he said. Once it is completed and inspected by the U.S. government, China must then approve the transfer. China only allows the loan of giant pandas born in captivity, Chang said.
Wild pandas live in the mountains of Sichuan; their fate is not known, he said.
Chang said he spoke Monday night to Zhang Zhihe, director of the panda research center, who assured him that the pandas at the center are fine.
"Oakland reaches out to the victims of this terrible earthquake in solidarity," Chang said. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims."
Among those purchasing newspapers Monday was Huiyang He, who is from Chengdu, the largest city in Sichuan province. Though not the epicenter of the quake, Chengdu shook violently and power lines fell, according to news reports from China.
"My family is there, my brother and sister," she said. "I will call them as soon as it is morning" (in China).
The Sing Tao Daily, the World Journal and the China Press, the leading Asian daily newspapers, are transmitted in the middle of the night to printing presses in the Bay Area, and the newspapers are distributed mid-morning. Because the earthquake occurred in the pre-dawn hours Pacific time, U.S. newspapers did not carry the earthquake news Monday.
Many interviewed in Chinatown Monday had read about the news on the Internet or heard about it on the radio, although others had not heard about it at all.
"I feel the total impact has not yet hit the Chinese community," said Jennie Ong, executive director of the Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce. "The news is just getting out right now," she said as she consulted a map of China to check it against news reports of the towns hit.
The worst hit were small cities and towns in Sichuan province, which is in the middle of China but is considered western China. Ong said that many of the merchants in Oakland are from Guangdong province in southeast China, but she said that "people have family associations and business ties" all around the country.
People from throughout China have relocated to Oakland's Chinatown, and residents there speak Mandarin and Cantonese.
Esther Chung, a merchant, plans to travel to Chengdu this summer with her son, just as they did last summer, so her son can practice table tennis with coaches at Sichuan University.
"I think we will still go," she said.
"For the last 10 years, Oakland has established a strong relationship with Chengdu," Chang, the city councilman, said. "I intend to visit Chengdu this August to strengthen the existing relationship and sign a Friendship City Agreement on the basis of mutual cultural, economic and business trade."
He said he was pleased to hear that President Bush has offered to help China in the time of disaster, and the councilman urged local residents to help victims by contributing to the Red Cross Society of China. Instructions on how to donate money can be found at www.chineseredcross.org.cn.
Reach Barbara Grady at bgrady@bayareanewsgroup.com and William Brand at bbrand@bayareanewsgroup.com.
