From the moment I set off for Lushan county, Ya'an, Sichuan province, all I could think of for the next 12 hours was how to get to the epicenter as soon as possible to let the outside world know about their situation, because I was only about 200 km away, closer to the scene than any of my colleagues.

I was in Dujiangyan, northeast of Lushan, for an pre-arranged interview on Saturday. While I was in the bathroom at about 8 am that morning, the house suddenly started to shake fiercely. I realized it was an earthquake and rushed out to the balcony. The shaking lasted for a few seconds and stopped.

News reports calling a magnitude-5.9 earthquake soon came out, and I set off for the interview as planned. At about 9 am, the magnitude was corrected to 7, and the death toll reached 29, with about another 100-some injured. So I started heading to Lushan, the epicenter.