The TGD reservoir sits on two major fault lines and the rising water level is straining these fault lines. Probe International (proxy needed) has more:

For seven months after the reservoir-level increase in 2006, Chinese Academy of Engineering scholar Li Wangping says the Three Gorges area registered 822 tremors. So far, none have been severe enough to cause serious damage. But, later this year when the dam’s water level is set to rise to its full 175-meter capacity, the increase in water pressure, in water fluctuation and in land covered by the reservoir, Fan says, makes for a “very large possibility” that the tremors will worsen.

And the TGD is not alone:

Engineers in China blame dams for at least 19 earthquakes over the past five decades, ranging from small tremors to one near Guangdong province’s Xinfengjiang dam in 1962 that registered magnitude 6.1 on the Richter scale – severe enough to topple houses.

I should say here that this is not to suggest any direct link between the dam and the Wenchuan earthquake on Monday afternoon. But it is interesting that when it comes to dams and earthquakes, pro-dammers spend an awful lot of their time assuaging fears that the world’s biggest dam can withstand earthquakes (although it is designed to handle a 7.0 quake, and Monday’s was 7.8 at the epicenter). Xinhua was quick to announce that Monday’s earthquake did not damage the TGD.

However, instead of asking how dams are affected by earthquakes, it seems it may be useful to flip that question around.

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This report and this audio slideshow on the effects of the earthquake by FT correspondent (and China Economic Review alumnus) Jamil Anderlini:

In Dujiangyan, two rows of soldiers and police held distraught parents back from the site of the collapse, where scores of soldiers sifted through rubble looking for more of the estimated 900 children buried in the rubble.

Each time a child’s body emerged, four soldiers covered the face with cloth and carried it on broken doors or other makeshift stretchers down a human corridor of panicking relatives and deposited it in the mud for the family to claim.

“I can’t take this,” said one soldier as he hurried away from a corpse and back to the rubble.

National Public Radio’s Chengdu Diary blog. By sheer coincidence, the NPR crew have been in Chengdu since the start of the month, joined recently by Robert Siegel (”Support for NPR is provided by the Ford Foundation …”), in preparation for a full week of broadcasts from the city scheduled for next week. Needless to say, what started out as a run-of-the-mill show on daily life in China (complete with snippets on traditional Chinese instruments) took a dramatic turn for them on Monday (here’s a recording of one of Melissa Block’s interviews being interrupted by the actual quake. I couldn’t hear the clip myself, though I mainly blame that on the woeful RealPlayer software).

I’ll be listening next week.

Photo by Art Silverman, NPR

Other posts from Chengdu Diary:
Caught in the Earthquake
A Horrific Scene at a Middle School in Dujiangyan
Meeting Survivors on the Road

*I admittedly have a soft spot for the area, and heartily encourage everyone to contribute what they can to the Chinese Red Cross (info here on how to donate) to help in relief efforts.
UPDATE: With thanks to the China Law Blog, Cn Reviews has a comprehensive list of ways to donate (36 and counting) here.

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Magculture: Hong Kong report - Insights on the editorial-design relationship at HK mags, and thoughts on the difference in English-language/Chinese character typefaces. Very few fonts for Chinese characters, which is probably why magazines/websites look so bad most of the time. | china magazines media

New York Times: ‘No Hope’ for Children Buried in Earthquake - “A group of doctors in white lab coats sat in a bus, waiting their turn to help. Some slept. They said no one had been brought out alive in hours.” | china earthquake

FinanceAsia.com: Vietnam is not the next China - “Royal Bank of Scotland issued a research report titled, Vietnam: Not Another China, that puts right that myth by stating another obvious: Vietnam ?lacks the same scale advantages. Its impact on global trade and inflation will also be marginal?.” | Vietnam china

SCMP - Interview with Xiao Yaqing, president of Chinalco. Xiao talks about the company’s investment in Rio Tinto | BHP aluminum china chinalco riotinto

Marbridge Consulting: Alibaba to Promote PCs with B2B Inside - “Alibaba would partner with Intel to introduce a line of computers designed specifically for SME e-commerce, to use Alibaba’s embedded SME B2B platform and Intel’s platform technology to meet the data security and service needs of SMEs.” | Alibaba Intel china technology

AP: Use of wind energy expected to grow dramatically - “The report, a collaboration between the Energy Department research labs and industry, concludes wind energy could generate 20 percent of the nation’s electricity by 2030, about the same share now produced by nuclear reactors.” — pretty much the same dynamics as in China | Cleantech US china wind

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Macro view

Deutsche Bank: “At the macroeconomic level, our current view is that the impact is limited … The equity market may be hurt by the rising uncertainties related to earnings impact and liquidity flows.”

Moody’s Economy: “Although the earthquake has caused major disruption only to the Sichuan province, which represents a relatively modest share of the country’s GDP, the economic impact of the earthquake to China as a whole is likely less severe compared to the snowstorm. Nevertheless, the earthquake has shaken market confidence.”

Sector and company view

DB: Sichuan Expressway (107.HK) will see slower traffic growth, Dongfang Electric (1072.HK) has major production bases in Sichuan. China Telecom (728.HK) is the worst hit of the telcos, the affected area represents about 10% of its fixed line network. The quake will also affect 7% of China Mobile’s relay network. Sinopec (386.HK) has a Sichuan gas project under development that will account for about 7% of FY10 revenue. Insurance firms, property companies with Sichuan and Chongqing in their portfolios. Cement makers like Shui On Cement (983.HK) and Anhui Conch (914.HK) could benefit.

ME: “The most direct impact is the disruption to economic activity due to problems with transport, communications and power supplies. In relation to business operations, the most affected by the disaster will be the manufacturing, retail, transport and tourism sectors. However, China’s construction and engineering industries will be able to take advantage of the massive reconstruction of buildings and infrastructure in coming months.

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66 companies listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen were suspended from trading today, says financial wire XFN Asia.

45 of the companies are listed in Shanghai and the rest in Shenzhen. The Shanghai exchange said it could not contact the suspended companies in Sichuan and Chongqing, while the Shenzhen exchange said some of the companies, based in Sichuan province, couldn’t yet disclose the quake’s impact on their business.

Dow Jones’ MarketWatch reported that the Shanghai Composite Index was down nearly 3% this afternoon with China Life and China Southern Airlines dropping around 5%. China Life’s H-shares fell slightly, by nearly 1%.

Bloomberg reports that Petrochina’s A-shares fell 3.4%, despite the company stating that there hasn’t been a “huge impact” on business because of the quake. The government has ordered oil wells shut in quake-hit areas. Another story reports that aluminum smelters in the province are doing alright, the Central China railway line remains closed, and a 5.5GW drop in power demand (1% of national generating capacity) because of downed transmission lines and damaged power plants.

The death toll from the quake is around 10,000, according to Xinhua

See Shanghaiist for continuous updates on the quake, including speedy translations from Chinese-language media, and information on donating to the Red Cross.

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Washington Post: Solar Energy Firms Leave Waste Behind in China - Very important story by Ariana Eunjung Cha. Exposes silicon tetrachloride dumping by a polysilicon company in Luoyang | Cleantech Solar china environment

Billsdue: Dirty Solar In China? - Excerpts from WaPo story on polluting polysilicon plants in Luoyang. “The article specifically mentions Suntech Power (NYSE:STP) as one of the customers of Luoyang Zhonggui. This expose could be very bad news for Suntech” | Cleantech Solar Suntech china

WSJ China Journal: Fear Rides the Bus - WSJ blogs about a poster we’ve seen stuck in public areas in Shanghai neighborhoods relating to the lethal bus burning in the city some weeks ago. It only adds fuel to the burning speculation about the nature of the incident. | Shanghai china

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A 7.5 magnitude earthquake hit western China at 2.28 pm, with tremors felt as far as Beijing and Bangkok.

Some quick updates on the sources we’re following on the web:

This Twitterer in Chengdu has attracted a large online audience:

Traffic is completely jammed. Police and ambulance can not get through. Chinese seem to be rather relaxed about the situation, even thou … … 2 minutes ago from txt

Unbelievable amounts of people in the streets. Complete buildings still seem to be evacuated. 8 minutes ago from txt

Ok, the city is definitely a bigger mess than i previously thought… Keep you posted 11 minutes ago from txt

Sohu has thrown up a page with updates, pictures and more from Chengdu.

Here’s a list of Twitterers with their location as “Chengdu”

AP is reporting that there is no sign of damage or injury in Chengdu so far.

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Portfolio: Awkward Questions for…’FT’s’ John Ridding - FT CEO says FT.com is crucial for the Asian market because it’s a large number of medium-sized economies spread out over a large area. FT.com has registered its millionth subscriber from China. | FT china media newspapers

Shanghai Daily: Hong Kong will allow foreign firms to list stocks via depository receipts - “HONG Kong’s stock exchange said yesterday it will allow foreign companies to list shares through depository receipts for the first time starting in July, aiming to draw more business from abroad.” | HongKong china shares

Economic Observer: WTO Deadlock: By the Numbers, or by the Rules? - An overview of the debate surrounding the current exclusion by Beijing of SOEs and local governments in the WTO-mandated government procurement agreement | WTO china

Shanghai Daily: Shanghai’s spot on the Wi-Fi map - Xuhui and other districts are going to get free WiFi | Shanghai china internet technology wifi

China Media Project: China’s national ordinance on openness of information - “ordinance is meant to establish ?active disclosure? (????) as the basic principle governing the handling of government information” | china law media

Economic Observer: Fuyang: A Shamed and Wounded City - Thoroguh piece on the misfortunes that have plagued Fuyang, the current center of the EV71 outbreak | EV71 Fuyang china disaster

Journalism.sg: What China can learn from our handling of Western media - Lee Kuan Yew in a Bloomberg interview on his press-handling tactics | LeeKuanYew PR Singapore china media olympics

AsianInvestor.net: ADB launches Climate Change Fund - “The ADB will provide an initial $40 million to the Climate Change Fund, which will be open for further contributions from countries, other development organisations, foundations, the private sector and other sources.” | ADB environment

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This analyst is in the process of recruiting staff and he told me the other day that he hopes to be up and running in June. Had he started in mid-April, he could have taken advantage of the market’s descent to around the 3,000-point mark and its subsequent rebound to 3,656.84 (as of May 8).

“Don’t you wish you could have opened for business a bit earlier?” I asked him.

“Maybe the SCI will nosedive to 2,500 in the future, who knows?” was his response. “The market is full of opportunities.”

Don’t you just love volatile stock markets?

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Seeking Alpha: Progress or Pipe Dreams? Private Equity / Venture Capital in China - Shaun Rein moderates a high-powered panel of China PE folks on the state of the industry| capital equity pe private vc venture

In These Times: Book Club of Champions - Insightful account of a Kurt Vonnegut bookclub at Guizhou Daxue, where students seek a “window into the American mind.” h/t China Beat | Guizhou US china society

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