I first saw the ruins emerging from the seawater on Sina.com. Due to my personal interest in ancient, mysterious archaeological discoveries, I always pay close attention, so I read the entire article thoroughly. That’s all; for a journalist, most news is skimmed or just the headlines are read. Thus, I could not have anticipated that this piece of ruins would soon become a small vine, leading me not to a fruit but to a key. This key made me realize that the first vine was not just a disaster! As I write these words, I know everything. But I don’t know how to describe it… The fruit of truth, huge, vast, immense? I can only try to express it through contrast; compared to it, this tsunami that swept through the human world is nothing, to put it mildly, insignificant. Insignificant! I am willing to start from the beginning, hoping you have some patience. Even the most violent hurricane can only slightly flutter the edges of one’s clothing.
On the evening of December 26, 2004, when I opened the news on the Great Ocean Net, I saw the tsunami event that shocked the world, some time after it had occurred. That day was a Sunday, and since I didn’t go to the newspaper office, I learned about it late. The data I saw then was the same as in the first news story I listed above: over 3,000 people dead. This was enough to make me stare at the monitor for over ten seconds. Over the years, in the generally understood civilized world, earthquakes, hurricanes, and floods resulting in deaths in the hundreds are considered major disasters, but this time there were 3,000. Two months later, this number rose to 300,000. This disaster, which once again made humanity aware of its smallness, offered me a free overseas trip in the spring of 2005 to accelerate the recovery of the domestic tourism economy hit hard by the tsunami. The Indian government organized a tour for travel editors from major Chinese newspapers to visit India, encouraging them to write articles to promote tourism recovery. The ten-day itinerary offered several routes with limited choices. Limited choice meant that some routes shouldn’t be overcrowded with journalists while others were left unattended, aiming to balance the promotion of domestic tourism.
Mahabalipuram Prophecy (2)
