As far as I can see, Sichuan is already returning to normal despite occasional aftershocks. People are smiling again. Some have started to play their beloved traditional games such as Chinese chess and Mahjong. The survivors and those less affected have started joking about the earthquake. Some outside observers might be amazed at the powers of recuperation of the Sichuan people. But that is what they are, and what they always have been.

I don't know if Sun Jianjun is still hurrying from group to group, writing poems and bringing comfort. But on the way back from Mianzhu to Chengdu, Sichuan's provincial capital, we were listening to our car radio. We were able to hear another short, simple poem for volunteer taxi drivers who had helped transport the injured to Chengdu from quake-hit Dujiangyan on the day of the disaster:

Bravo taxi drivers
We salute you
For we are proud of you.

(China.org.cn June 20, 2008)