AKP Phnom Penh, January 10, 2025--
As dawn broke, Ma Junyun and his fellows started cooking noodles by a roadside in the quake-hit Tsogo Township of southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region. The rising steam momentarily dispelled the morning's chilly grip.
"We have just delivered 15 bowls of noodles to a relocation site," said Ma, providing free-of-charge hand-pulled beef noodles to passersby. Ma hails from northwest China's Gansu Province, famous for Lanzhou beef noodles.
The man understood all too well the difficulty of obtaining a bowl of noodles under such difficult circumstances, as his hometown Jishishan, an autonomous county of Bonan, Dongxiang and Salar ethnic groups, was jolted by a 6.2-magnitude earthquake on Dec. 18, 2023. "After the disaster happened, we received aid from across China, including people in Xizang," he said.
Ma has been doing business in Xigaze City, where Dingri County administers Tsogo. On Tuesday, a 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck Dingri at 9:05 a.m., leaving 126 people dead and at least 188 others injured.
Ma left for the epicenter immediately after he learned about the quake. "Whatever our ethnicities are, we come from a whole big family," he added.
Individuals like Ma and his friends are joining countless others across the country to offer assistance to those affected by the quake.

AKP-Xinhua