shanghai — li suyue left sichuan two years ago and traveled the 1,000 miles here for a job in a small restaurant. now, days after the earthquake that struck her province, she is distraught, unable to go to work. she constantly tries to call home.
“the day before yesterday, my father called and said they are o.k.,” she said. “but now i cannot reach them again. my mind is totally a mess.”
for three decades, china’s explosive economic growth has been fueled by its enormous pool of migrant workers, perhaps as many as 200 million people who construct roads and buildings, lug coal, fire steel and operate the assembly lines that churn out much of the world’s toys, clothing and electronics. among them are a huge but uncounted group from sichuan — estimated at somewhere between 6 million and 20 million. like ms. li, they left to find work in wealthier, coastal, regions — and are now tormented by the reports of the worst natural disaster to hit the country in more than 30 years.
their frantic efforts to get word of their families are thwarted by downed telephone lines and disrupted cellular phone base stations. the surge in calls has locked up functioning lines.xiao fuhua, 33, whose wife and three children are in liangshan, an area in southern sichuan province that is not supposed to be hard hit, said he had been unable to reach his family at all.
“i was told there was no signal in sichuan because of the earthquake,” said mr. xiao, who earns about $120 a month as a construction worker in tianjin, east of beijing. “i heard a lot of bad news from tv. i hope they are o.k. it’s said that the earthquake in liangshan is not very big, but i’m still worried.”第 1 2 页 下一页