A few Syracuse students decided to donate blood Tuesday to help the victims of the Sichuan Provence earthquake. Hundreds of Tsinghua students turned out to give blood. So many wanted to help, organizers had to turn people away. Officials say over 700 units of blood were collected. Below is a story I filed for WAER.
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The drive was held in the “C Building” (it looks like a C). It’s basically the equivalent of the campus’s student center. There’s a big supermarket in the basement, a post office, bank, even a hair salon with 8RMB haircuts. No one was there for haircuts, though. Some people waited in line for over six hours to give blood.
I spoke with Red Cross Society of Tsinghua University President Chen Xiang. He told me that by the time the blood bus arrived on campus at about 11am there were already 100 students waiting to give blood. The collection was due to shut down after dark, but students refused to be turned away and the drive continued past midnight.
SU Abroad students Yu Chan and Jin Dong donated blood. They are both Chinese and say that’s why they decided to donate. Jin told me she felt like the country was united in efforts to help the earthquake victims. I couldn’t help but think about how “united” America got after 9/11. I guess China and America aren’t that different after all.
