Within five hours, 200,000 generous passengers decided to pay extra to ride the Beijing Subway knowing that a ticket surcharge would go to the earthquake victims in Szechuan Province (southwest China). Each special ticket costed 4 yuan ($0.57 US) each, which consisted of the 2 yuan ($0.29 US) regular fare in addition to a 2 yuan donation.
The national television station of China, CCTV, reported that many transit smart-card holders chose to stand in line at ticket booths to donate money.
The 8.0 quake devastated the surrounding region, killing 40,000 people(this number is expected to rise to 50,000). Several schools collapsed burying students and teachers underneath mounds of rubble. With the one-child policy, many parents had their only children killed. The quake has damaged more than 21 million buildings and caused 5.36 million structures to collapse. 4.8 million victims were left homeless and 237,000 were injured.
China sent 130,000 soldiers to the affected regions to pull people from the rubble and provide relief efforts. As of May 20, 34,000 medical staff are currently working in the affected areas.
At Tian'anmen Square in Beijing, the flag was raised half mast for a three day mourning period, which started on Monday, a week after the quake hit.
400,000 yuan ($57,368 US) was collected by the Beijing Subway and will be sent to the Red Cross Society of China.
Photo by Flickr user Antonis SHEN.
