Earthquake in China

This item appears on page 16 of the June 2010 issue.

More than 2,000 people died in China’s Qinghai province when a magnitude-6.9 earthquake hit on April 14. More than 12,000 people were injured and tens of thousands were without shelter in the bitter cold of the high mountains.

In western-central China, the Qinghai region is adjacent to Tibet and the population is primarily ethnically Tibetan. Rescue efforts were hampered by the limited access and altitudes of over 14,000 feet.