YINCHUAN, Ningxia: I was placing my recorder on the desk of deputy mayor Li Weidong when I heard the woman behind me murmuring "I feel dizzy". Another one joined her: "Me too." Then they both said: "It's an earthquake!"

By that time, I could clearly feel the swaying of the building. It was gentle and rhythmic. I said "gentle" because half an hour earlier, when the plane I took was touching down at Yinchuan Airport, it hit turbulence, which sent my head spinning and I had not totally recovered from it.

As one who went through the 1989 San Francisco earthquake, I quickly gauged that the tremor, as felt in Yinchuan, should register at about 5 on the Richter scale. It turned out to be a quake rolled to Yinchuan some 900 km away from the epicenter in Sichuan province.

The man accompanying me said: "Everyone stay calm! This building can withstand an 8-magnitude tremor. Don't worry!"

The 16-story city hall of Yinchuan, capital of the Ningxia Hui autonomous region, was newly built. I was on the 15th floor, waiting to interview the deputy mayor.

The swaying lasted a good 30 seconds before my host got anxious. "Let's take off," he said.

When we reached the stairs, I still felt a bit of motion sickness, but could not tell whether it was getting better or worse as there was a column of staff descending the stairs and the pace was hurried but orderly.

Cell phone signals were not available for some 10 minutes, and then everyone started making calls.