About 1.5 hours ago, our building started swaying as I was giving a presentation on blogging to my staff. Usually these little earthquakes last a few seconds, but this time the swaying and shaking continued – the Venetian blinds rocked back and forth, and you could see the walls moving. It went on for a full 40 seconds or so, a very long time for an earthquake here.
Which brings me to how the media is covering it. From Forbes:
An earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale struck Taiwan at 3:40 pm local time today , the Central Weather Bureau said.
The tremor’s epicentre was 5.0 kilometres under the seabed and was located 82.2 kilometres southeast of the northeastern coastal town of Nanao in Ilan County, the bureau said.
High rise buildings swayed during the quake but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.
Same story, from Xinhua:
An earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale hit China’s Taiwan Friday, shaking buildings in Taipei, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties, according to media reports from Taipei.
Anybody catch the difference? (Hint: it’s in bold.)
1
By Ivan
That was no earthquake. That was a shock wave from Phil Cunningham’s recent brain-fart on Danwei.
July 28, 2006 @ 3:43 am | Comment
2
By Thomas
Hmm….I wonder why I never hear of a volcano erupting in America’s Hawaii, or a flood happening in China’s Fujian, or a heatwave in France’s Lyon…….
July 28, 2006 @ 6:24 am | Comment
3
By Liuyixi
Does the seismic activity belong to China as well or just the island it struck? I need more details, Xinhua!
July 28, 2006 @ 6:49 am | Comment
4
By Mike
Any relation to the quake in Indonesia a couple days ago? Same fault line?
July 28, 2006 @ 11:27 am | Comment
5
By t_co
Maybe the Zhonggong folks did it. Maybe their master was in the midst of “assaulting” another housekeeper, and accidentally twitched his PK powers.
July 28, 2006 @ 12:40 pm | Comment
6
By chester
I am glad you are ok, Richard.
July 28, 2006 @ 3:06 pm | Comment
7
By skystreaker
They’ve got white meterologists in China saying “China’s Taiwan” when they talk about the weather there.
So I wouldn’t just say it’s just a Zhong Gong thing, unless – do they have lots of white people?
Glad it wasn’t too serious.
July 28, 2006 @ 3:49 pm | Comment
8
By nausicaa
How often do earthquakes of this scale happen in Taiwan?
Also, good catch. It’s very 此地无银三百俩.
July 28, 2006 @ 7:00 pm | Comment
9
By richard
Small earthquakes are very common, and I’ve experienced four or five over the past year. But nothing that in any way compared to yesterday’s.
July 28, 2006 @ 7:55 pm | Comment
10
By bingfeng
comparing to some who claim that people in taiwan speak “taiwanese language”, “china’s taiwan” is not so laughable
anyways, china’s taiwan or not, it’s inhabited by chinese
July 28, 2006 @ 8:47 pm | Comment
11
By Thomas
Or Taiwanese. It depends on to whom you are speaking. But back to the earthquake…
July 29, 2006 @ 7:52 am | Comment
12
By Raj
bingfeng
Less than 10% of Taiwanese regard themselves as being exclusively Chinese.
Compare that to around 45% each for “Chinese-Taiwanese” and “Taiwanese”.
It’s not surprising, after all. Britons of Chinese ancestory don’t regard themselves as being completely Chinese. They normally identify themselves as being British, even if they have Chinese ancestory.
A similar thing has happened in Taiwan, as the proportion of those born in China has dropped and those inside Taiwan increased.
July 29, 2006 @ 9:40 am | Comment
13
By Raj
Ooops
I meant “even if they acknowledge their Chinese ancestory too”.
July 29, 2006 @ 9:41 am | Comment