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He Xiaoxin: How Far Can I Go? And How Much Can I Do?

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Journalist He Xiaoxin (和小欣) of The Beijing Daily (北京日报) traveled to report from the scene of  the massive explosion in a chemical warehouse at the Tianjin port , in which  112 people have been reported killed so far . Dramatic photos and videos of the explosion traveled quickly around the world via the Internet. But in this photo essay, He provides an up-close, personal look at the devastation. Propaganda officials have since banned media from reporting on the explosion  or posting stories that did not originate from Xinhua: =================== The site of this explosion is just like a scene from a movie. Laying in my hotel bed, looking at my photos, this is what I thought. 1. When I first set eyes on it, it startled me. This, this must be a movie! A Hollywood sci-fi wouldn’t be this shocking. This is like hell on earth. I could only think of one word—Chernobyl! In that movie I like, “Constantine,” when Keanu Reeves enters Hell, flames roasting everything, that’s

Death toll in Tianjin explosions climbs to over 100; crews search for missing

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Tianjin, China (CNN) Crews searched for an unknown number of civilians and soldiers Saturday who are believed trapped by multiple explosions that killed at least 104 people this week in this eastern Chinese city. As of Saturday evening, more than 40 people have been rescued in Tianjin, including a 19-year-old firefighter who lay on the ground for hours with burns and a cracked skull until he was found, officials said. Relatives of those still missing stormed an official press conference demanding to know the whereabouts of their loved ones. Families wrote the names of missing persons on posters lining a street outside a temporary shelter near the rescue site. Earlier Saturday, fires sent plumes of black smoke skyward near where explosions devastated a chemical warehouse in Tianjin on Wednesday. But officials denied news reports that an evacuation order had been immediately issued for everyone within 1.8 miles (3 kilometers), with Tianjin government spokesman Gong Jiansheng c