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Danny Lee

Seven Chinese University students emerged, exhausted but beaming, into the arrival hall at Hong Kong International Airport, smiles of relief and joy plastered to their faces.
The tired travellers arrived in Hong Kong five days after the initial devastating earthquake that wrought havoc across Nepal.
For a handful of parents who decided to meet them at the airport, the embrace capped an endless-seeming wait. Exactly an hour after landing, the medical students emerged to a contingent of family and press.
Justin Ma Ming-yin, 23, said the group left “beautiful” Nepal with a heavy heart full of mixed emotions “We are very happy to be back and really tired, but inside we are tremendously joyful. We have been crying back in Kathmandu because taking the plane back from Pokhara to the capital, you could see the ruins and devastation from the window.
Dragonair flight 191 from Kathmandu and Dhaka touched down in Hong Kong with the students aboard just after 7.29am.

“It really could have been one of us,” Ma said. “We’re really sad because there are still a lot of people left behind back there.”
In an generous act, the medical students met paramedics and disaster relief teams just before they left, and donated spare antibiotics, steroids, painkillers, food and clothing “whatever we had to see what we can do to help the survivors of the quake,” Ma said.
Perry Dao Wei-hei, 21, led the group’s praise.
“We are thankful to friends and family who bombarded us with messages of support, to university, the government they have been supporting us [on the trip] for the past few weeks and worrying about us,” she said.
Rana Tam Wai-lam, 22, said the university’s concern and support in helping book their travel back to Hong Kong made things less stressful.
The Chinese University students were part of a group of 12 less than halfway through a month-long exchange programme with hospitals in Kathmandu and Pokhara, epicentre of Saturday’s magnitude 7.8 earthquake.
The students were willing to return to Nepal but the time was “not right to go again soon,” said 21-year old Ben Cheung Cheuk-yiu, because “there is not much help they could give” and they would cost “the hospital more resources to look after us.”
The medical students described Pokhara as a relatively new city constructed of low-lying buildings. That may have made a difference between the devastation of the historical capital Kathmandu and the relatively light damage they witnessed in Pokhara.
But from the air, as the students flew over Pokhara and in the surrounding villages, they saw red and blue tents shelters, little houses flattened – a pattern emerged of rural areas completely wrecked like the capital.
When the quake hit “it was really hard to stand still,” 22-year-old Jacqueline Shum Si-yan said.
Ma said the group was playing snooker “when the table started shaking and the balls moved frantically.”
“It felt like we’re on a trampoline and then when we managed to get outside you see that building is shaking and the surface of the floor ripple,” Ma added.
After the first day the group, which also included students Karen Pui Shan-shek, 22, and Bryan Lee Tien-seng, 22, experienced an aftershock roughly every hour.
The group largely remained awake in the 48 hours after the quake, becoming mentally exhausted amid the frequent aftershocks as they prepared to evacuate their makeshift bedroom in the hotel lobby.
Monday's magnitude 6.7 aftershock, which struck around 2pm was as frightening as the initial jolt, they said.
Cheung’s own recollection of events was that “stuff started to shake around.” He said the quake lasted one minute but “we ran out … just lucky there was no collapse.”
Tam said: “After the quake we didn’t think it was that serious but when you go back to the hotel and read the news we found how devastating it was.”
As of Wednesday at 11am, seven Hongkongers remained missing in Nepal, the Immigration Department said.
Another 35 people whose families had contacted the department for assistance were confirmed to be safe and well, the department said.
The department has so far received a total of 43 calls for assistance.
One Hong Kong man, a 42-year-old originally from Nepal who lived in Hong Kong with his family and held a Hong Kong identity card, is the first Hongkonger confirmed killed in the quake.
The death toll rose to more than 4,300 on Tuesday and officials warned the figure could go up to 10,000.


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Exhausted, grateful Hong Kong medical students return from quake-stricken Nepal

Medical students from the Chinese University greet their families after returning from Nepal, where a massive earthquake struck on Saturday. Photo: Nora Tam

Student Jacqueline Shum Si-yan, 22, greets a family member after returning from quake-stricken Nepal. Photo: Nora Tam

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