Hung Yuen-ngai was at the airport in Chengdu, ready to return home to Hong Kong, when the earthquake struck on Monday.
He is still waiting, but what he saw, heard and felt, he will remember forever. 'I was preparing for check-in at the airport,' said Mr Hung, 78, who joined a four-day group tour run by China Travel Services.
'Suddenly I heard an incredibly huge noise. I saw the glass shaking and felt the ground swaying.
'There was nothing in my mind at that moment but running for my life.'
Hundreds of Hongkongers are stranded in Sichuan. At least nine flights shuttling between Chengdu and Hong Kong were either delayed or cancelled yesterday because of air-traffic-control problems in Chengdu.
The Hong Kong Travel Industry Council estimated that 400 to 500 tourists from the city were still in Sichuan. Council executive director Joseph Tung Yao-chung, said all Hong Kong tourists were safe, though only some of them were able to fly home yesterday as flights were limited.
He added all the tours scheduled to go to Sichuan in the next couple of weeks would be suspended for safety reasons, and that more than 1,000 tourists would be affected.
