Home, sweet home
- Source: Global Times
- [08:38 March 18 2011]
- Comments
By Qiu Wei in Niigata
Hundreds of Chinese queued for airport shuttle-bus tickets Thursday at the Niigata East Sports Center in northern Japan, which had been turned into an emergency shelter. The Chinese consulate-general in Niigata facilitated the evacuation of about 5,000 Chinese nationals. Fewer than half have managed to return to China due to a shortage in air tickets, despite Chinese airline companies doubling their flights to Niigata. Rising levels of radiation contamination in Fukushima have forced some 400,000 people to abandon their homes in surrounding localities. Of those, 6,000 have traveled to Niigata so far.
I feel left out. Our family was probably the last one to know about the evacuation plan. We were in such a hurry, I came here without my passport. I hope my son will sort it out soon.
Wang Demin, 67, a Chinese Japanese, was stranded in the shelter as he and his granddaughter did not carry the valid documents to travel to Harbin, China. His son was scrambling to return to their home in Sendai to get their passports. Photos: Zhang Siyang
