The Chinese Wish Life Were But a Dream

Instead, they're living with the nightmare of the Songhua River chemical spill making its way downstream. Another city had to shut its water supply off to prevent contamination:

Another town on a poisoned Chinese river shut down its water system Wednesday as a toxic slick caused by a chemical plant explosion arrived, and the country's health minister warned that the spill was still a major problem.

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Running water to about 26,000 people in Dalianhe, on the Songhua River in China's northeast, was cut off at 6 p.m., said an employee of the government office of Yilan County, where Dalianhe is located.

"It will last three days," said the employee, who would give only his surname, Gu.

The slick arrived a day after Harbin, a major city upstream, declared its tap water safe to drink again. Its 3.8 million people had endured five days without running water as the slick of benzene and other toxic chemicals passed.

Schools in Harbin reopened Wednesday and businesses that closed due to lack of water, such as bathhouses, reported a surge in customers.

But Health Minister Gao Qiang warned against complacency, saying the spill was still a "major problem."

The major problem is that the benzene and other contaminants are still present in the water, and especially in the ice. It may take until the spring until the water is flushed of all the contaminants. And the chemical spill is going to make it to the Russian border in the next few days:

The 50-mile-long slick is expected to reach the major Russian city of Khabarovsk within two weeks. The Songhua flows into the Heilong River, which becomes the Amur in Russia.

Oleg Mitvol, deputy chief of Russia's Federal Natural Resources Service, said Wednesday in Moscow that the slick could reach Khabarovsk, a city of 600,000, in as soon as four days.

Residents of Khabarovsk have bought up bottled water in stores, leaving many shops with only carbonated water. They also are stocking up on water at home, filling bathtubs and any container they can find.

Meanwhile, the death toll from the latest coal mine explosion reached 161. More than 6,000 Chinese die every year in mining accidents.