Pick Yourself Up,Dust Yourself Off.docVIP

Pick Yourself Up,Dust Yourself Off WHEN you fall down,otherpeople may try to help you,but you should get up byyourseK, said Song Xiangli,owner of a hotpot restaurant in ShuimoTown,Wenchuan County,Aba Tibetanand Qiang Autonomous Prefecture. 　　All of the dozen of tables in her res-taurant are occupied.Songs 81-year-old mother is busy in the kitchen withthe other chefs; and her cousin helpsother waitresses look after the guests. 　　When the deadly earthquake hap-pened on May 12,2008,Song was ather job in Yingxiu Town,the epicenter.Desperately worried about her family,she risked one aftershock after anotherto walk the many kilometers to herhome in Shuimo Town.Fortunately,herparents and her son,a middle schoolstudent in Wenchuan,were safe.Butthe town,home to a population of over2o,ooo Qiang,Tibetan,Hui,and Hanpeople,was seriously damaged; 311 peo-ple died and 3,7ol were injured.The direct economic lossreached RMB 5.8 billion.Songs family home was destroyed. 　　Now Songs mother helps her at the restaurant,butmother and daughter argue frequently.My morn is a realtreasure.I like to go head to head with her - its a lot offun, Song said cheerfully of the new kind of rapport and in-timacy that has developed between them since the disaster.After being laid off in 1998,Song and her husband left theirhometown for job opportunities in other areas,and werepreoccupied with making more money.The minute shereunited with her family,Song realized that what they hadgone in search of - economic comfort - was probably notthe most important ingredient in happiness. 　　Now her new home looks much as it did before the fate-ful disaster.Her neat two-storey house of over 5oo squaremeters keeps the characteristics of traditional local con-structions - an open octagonal terrace in the middle; lintels,window frames,beams and eaves delicately carved andpainted.The entire place has a quaint and dignified atmo-sphere,as aid building crews restored it in accordance withthe original style.When we