Chengdu Diary

As some of you know, I’d been tentatively scheduled to go to eastern Tibet in June 2009 for nearly 2 years. Tentative. The key word. The region of Kham opens and closes at the whim of the Chinese government. Primoz Peer, the gentleman that has exported several Tibetan Terriers from the region, was to be my host. He has traveled to various areas of Tibet since 2000. Among factors taken into consideration when tentatively scheduling June 2009 were the Olympics, the possibility of finding puppies and my finances. Life got in the way, it seems. With our country’s economy currently in the tank, construction near an all-time low, there’s no way I can afford to make the trip. Nevermind that Ponya’s c-section wiped out my funds. We were to fly into Chengdu and travel by vehicle from there. It was a year ago – May 12, 2008 – Chengdu sustained a deadly earthquake, killing thousands, destroying buildings, leaving millions homeless.

This week, while driving to work, I heard a segment on NPR, an interview Melissa Block. She was in Chengdu last year during the earthquake and, as part of NPR’s All Things Considered, went back to China’s Sichuan Province to report on developments in the past year. Chengdu Diary is a blog with regular updates from this trip.