With television antennas extending from bamboo poles atop many buildings, the entire community was outfitted this week with cable. The area's director, Yang Zhong Ming, wanted everyone to have access to the Olympic Games, yet yesterday morning, a portion of Xingfu Jiayuan was stuck with snowy pictures. But Lin Jing He, the cable guy, showed up in the afternoon.
In nearby Chengdu - like most of the country's major cities - there's a giant clock that's been counting down the days, minutes and seconds until the opening ceremony. As Lin screwed a white cable into the back of a television in the commons room, an Olympic news report began flashing on the screen, and the countdown clock in Chengdu would have read 4 hours, 4 minutes.
Yang, the area director, knows profound loss - his grandson died in the quake - but speaks mostly of rebirth. "There's much excitement about the Olympics," he said.
Four hours later, that would become very evident. As the sun set on Dujiangyan, that excitement began to stir into a near-frenzy. News of the Games was broadcast on outdoor speakers throughout the resettlement area. A half-hour before the opening ceremony began, row upon row of small homes had their televisions tuned, and people without TVs began filling the empty seats in the commons areas to watch together. "We are so excited," said Peng Ding Hua, 59. "We skipped supper."
About a dozen others were seated around Peng and his wife, and a projector broadcasting the ceremony was aimed at a white bed sheet that covered the entirety of one wall.
Across the courtyard was another commons area where more than three dozen gathered, their collective gaze affixed to a single TV set. In the middle of the room sat 58-year-old Yang Zhong Kang, fidgeting and clapping. In May, the earthquake took her home and nearly her life. Yang was in another building, one that stood four stories tall, when she felt the rumbling.
"I dashed out of the building, and I just narrowly escaped," she said. "It was just like a movie."
And now she lives here. She used the word "fortunate" to describe herself and all of China to be hosting these Games. At 8:08 p.m., the Opening Ceremony officially began in Beijing. The national flag was walked through the national stadium in Beijing. More than 900 miles away, a roomful of refugees rose from their seats, staring ahead in a silent awe.
They'd spent three months feeling sorrow; these next couple of weeks are reserved for joy, they said.
"Even the earthquake cannot stop the people from enjoying these Olympics," Yang said.
rick.maese@baltsun.com
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Sun reporters blog from Beijing at baltimoresun.com/olympicsblog
