Tuesday, 10th of April, 2pm. My class was about to finish, while I was packing my stuff, I still chatted a bit with my teacher. A lot of other students were already walking around in the hallway, passing by our classroom. The normal noise level was beginning to arouse.
Then all of a sudden lights began to be turned out, from afar a siren could be heard. All of a sudden traffic outside the classroom began to slow down, people moving inside the buildings, like the big library opposite of my classroom. After another short while the Mandarin Training Centre was totally blacked out and traffic was absolutely disrupted. What has happened within the last one to three minutes was really scary, what was going on? My teacher smiles: "Should we also turn off the lights, we are actually supposed to. Well until last year we had to go down and assemble on the big parking lot somewhere around here. Ah, do you see the lights in the library are all turned off now. Well this is a practice alarm for a potential air raid. Now we may not move for 30 minutes and need to wait for the sign that it is over."
People who were walking on the streets had to stop right where they are (when you were in the middle of crossing an intersection, that was your spot to wait for the next 30 minutes), cars had to be stopped and police assembled in every major intersection to ensure security. I heard until last year some kind of inspection police actually controlled public buildings whether everyone was obeying the rules or not.
Nowadays, only the lights had to be turned off and we were actually supposed to have class. Well in times when the direction of the MTC decides that the air-conditioning system need to be renovated for the coming 80 days (which means that the air-co may only work at lower power or not at all), we can also have class without light!
Only a small group of antagonists in the 10th floor (the floor for research students of Chinese as a Second language), resisted to turn off the lights. This might be another form of protest against the current government of President Chen Shuibian.
For most people this kind of exercise is ridiculous and a waste of time and money. I assume that there is still a slight chance existing that makes this kind of exercises necessary and it is wise to be alert. After half an hour of silence and shut-down the sirens sounded again and everything came back to live.
Then all of a sudden lights began to be turned out, from afar a siren could be heard. All of a sudden traffic outside the classroom began to slow down, people moving inside the buildings, like the big library opposite of my classroom. After another short while the Mandarin Training Centre was totally blacked out and traffic was absolutely disrupted. What has happened within the last one to three minutes was really scary, what was going on? My teacher smiles: "Should we also turn off the lights, we are actually supposed to. Well until last year we had to go down and assemble on the big parking lot somewhere around here. Ah, do you see the lights in the library are all turned off now. Well this is a practice alarm for a potential air raid. Now we may not move for 30 minutes and need to wait for the sign that it is over."
People who were walking on the streets had to stop right where they are (when you were in the middle of crossing an intersection, that was your spot to wait for the next 30 minutes), cars had to be stopped and police assembled in every major intersection to ensure security. I heard until last year some kind of inspection police actually controlled public buildings whether everyone was obeying the rules or not.
Nowadays, only the lights had to be turned off and we were actually supposed to have class. Well in times when the direction of the MTC decides that the air-conditioning system need to be renovated for the coming 80 days (which means that the air-co may only work at lower power or not at all), we can also have class without light!
Only a small group of antagonists in the 10th floor (the floor for research students of Chinese as a Second language), resisted to turn off the lights. This might be another form of protest against the current government of President Chen Shuibian.
For most people this kind of exercise is ridiculous and a waste of time and money. I assume that there is still a slight chance existing that makes this kind of exercises necessary and it is wise to be alert. After half an hour of silence and shut-down the sirens sounded again and everything came back to live.
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