Home / News
The first batch of group visitors from Beijing who were stranded in Nepal after the magnitude-8.1 quake arrived at Beijing Capital Airport this morning.
According to the municipal tourism committee, the other Beijing visitors still stuck in Nepal are in good condition and no casualties have been reported. They will return home in the coming two days.
 |
|
The first batch of Beijing visitors to Nepal arrive at Beijing Capital Airport on Monday Morning. [Photo from xinhuanet] |
The visitors coming home are mostly seniors, with an average age of 60 years. The other four people are staff of an entertainment company. They took an Airbus 330 of Air China destined for Chengdu in Southwest China on Sunday, and then transferred to Beijing.
The group were greeted with flowers and hugs from their families and friends. Some shouted “lucky” in excitement.
Wang Hong had been at the airport exit in Terminal 3 for hours. She repeated the moves: standing on tiptoes while looking to the direction of the exit, and then taking a glance of the wrist watch.
Wang was waiting for her three family members who were taken home by Air China from Katmandu. When they finally appeared from the exit, Wang came up to hug her husband in tears.
 |
|
Visitors are greeted by their families and friends. [Photo from xinhuanet] |
Ji Meng, the tour conductor, said that they were shocked the moment the earthquake struck the city. They were dining in an old building, and “suddenly the whole building started to shake, and the dishes fell to the floor,” she said.
The Chinese visitors quickly retreated to the street after the violent jolt lasting for about one minute. “When we came out, we saw local residents standing in the middle of the road and sticking tightly to the guardrail,” Ji Meng said.
Ms Yang, one of the entertainment company employees, told that they were on on a mountain road when the earth suddenly began to shake. She saw the adobe houses on the mountain collapse one by one and the mountain on top of them landslide, leaving a large tree in their way.
Yang said the passengers took part in the rescue after they were safely placed on an open highland. “The most heartbreaking scene is when one of us tried to dig out a local villager from the ruins, but the person was buried again when the aftershock struck and he was found dead soon afterwards,” She said. They later helped send an injured child to the hospital along with the driver.
Ms Liu, one of the group visitors, said they all donated to the local government before leaving. She said this was an adventurous but lucky journey.
According to statistics from the official website of National Tourism Administration, 39 Chinese tour groups with a total of 1,047 people were still in Nepal as of 12 am, April 26. But there are another 3,000 Chinese individual travelers in the country, according to the official estimation. China has added flights to Nepal, which have a total transport capacity of 1,200 people.
Death toll in Nepal has climbed to 3, 351 after Saturday's strong quake, and 6,833 people were injured, according to the country's Home Affairs Ministry on Monday.
