This is the kind of story that has been told over and over during the last few days here in China. The link is to the story of a couple that clung together for over a day while waiting to be rescued from the rubble of a building, but there are so many more, and countless remain untold.
Today marks the start of a three-day period of national mourning for the victims of the quake (over 30,000 at this point), and this afternoon at 2:28–exactly one week after the quake struck–there was a three-minute period of national mourning. I was alone in my hotel room in Shenyang. As exactly 2:28 cars outside started honking, and didn’t stop for three minutes. Here are some pictures from around the country.