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When Beijing retiree Zhang Yumin left home at daybreak on Sunday to catch an early morning flight to Kunming, she didn't know the spring city was overcast with terrorism and bloodshed.
Kunming, reputed for its mild climate and perennial sunshine, was the first stop of Zhang's six-day sightseeing tour of southwest China's Yunnan Province.
About nine hours before her plane took off, a group of knife-wielding attackers slashed frantically at crowds at Kunming railway station, killing 29 people and injuring more than 130.
Zhang, 59, was already on her way to Beijing airport when she heard the news. "I was shocked, but it was too late to change schedule."
But the former cashier at a Sinopec subsidiary in Beijing's Mentougou district did not panic, as she was traveling with her husband and friends in a tour group.
As the plane was about to land in Kunming, Zhang said she was amazed by the dazzling sunshine, a luxury for Beijingers who were fed up with the gloomy winter and suffocating smog.
"It's hard to believe what has happened under such beautiful sunshine," she told Xinhua reporters who were taking the same flight to Kunming.
Post-terror quiet
Kunming airport was quiet and not so crowded when the first flight from Beijing landed at around 10 a.m.
Police officers were in most parts of the terminal building, which made Zhang feel safer.
Zhang and her heavy-hearted travel companions were taken to Dianchi Lake, one of the city's major tourist attractions.
They were excited at the sight of the beautiful lake and the gulls hovering over its water when news broadcast from a handheld radio threw them back into silence.
"The terrorist attack of last night has caused 29 deaths...," said a loud voice among the quiet lakeside crowd of tourists and joggers.
The radio belonged to an old woman surnamed Shao, who always takes it with her to morning exercises.
But this morning, it broke the tranquility and reminded people of the terrorist attack.
The lake is about a 20-minute drive from where the killing spree took place -- Kunming railway station.
An area within 300 meters in radius from the station was cordoned off on Sunday. The area was off-limits to motor vehicles, but pedestrians were allowed to enter the area along the pavement.
People were heard whispering about Saturday's nightmare.
The area was supposed to have been free of peddlers, but some managed to stay.
A middle-aged female vendor was surrounded by about a dozen passersby, who were more interested in her account of Saturday's bloodshed than the cell phone battery packs she was selling.
"There were a gang of them, men and women dressed in black and waving long knives," said the 40-something woman from the eastern province of Anhui. "We all ran for our lives."
Terror haunts
The killers, "like sharks that forced into a shoal of small fish", caused panic among the crowd in the square outside the railway station's main building, said Zhang Peng, an official at Kunming railway station. "They slashed at every man and woman in sight, and blood was everywhere."
Cleaners worked overnight to clean the square of blood stains. But Han Yizhen, one of the cleaners, showed Xinhua reporters a dried pool of blood just outside the ticket office.
Han had finished her shift at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday. "My supervisor called me at 11 and told me about the killings. He also told me I could come to work later."
So Han clocked in at 7 a.m. instead of the normal 5:40 a.m.
"The station was crowded as usual, but I noticed some changes," she said. "Instead of sitting down on the ground, smoking, playing cards and eating snacks, most passengers chose to stand or walk around with their luggage, as if they were ready to flee at any moment."
At the end of the morning, Han said she cleaned up far less garbage than usual, as fewer people ate packaged food and fewer peddlers toured the area.
Han said she began hesitating as to whether she should keep her cleaning job. At 62, she still works seven days a week and is paid 1,300 yuan (211.5 U.S. dollars) a month. Her husband does the same job.
"But if I quit, it'll be harder for him to feed the family alone."
Wang Guofu, a college student in Kunming, insisted he should see his girlfriend Liu Yujiao off to Qujing, another city in Yunnan Province where Liu studies computer science at university.
Both are natives of eastern Shandong Province. "Our parents still don't know what has happened in Kunming -- they rarely watch television or read newspapers," said Wang, 21. "It's better they don't know. Otherwise, they'd be worried."
Where there's love
When the panic-stricken crowd ran for their lives, Zhang Dexing showed an unusual calmness and bravery. He called together a team of volunteers who used clubs and fire extinguishers to fight the knife attackers.
They also helped out two unarmed policemen, who were fighting the attackers with bare hands.
Fearing the terrorists might break into the station building and take a heavier toll, Zhang and two other volunteers stood guard at the entrance, putting their own lives at risk.
Zhang does not even have a proper job. He is a scalper, who earns a living by buying train tickets and selling them on for a profit -- deals that are done under the table as he faces heavy fines if detected.
The volunteers he mobilized included his fellow ticket scalpers and a few passengers.
A native of Kunming, Zhang said he was seized by rage at the brutal killings. "I cannot stand letting the killers get away with it -- I live near the railway station and my family could be at risk if any one of them is at large."
The volunteers also helped in the rescue work. They helped carry the dead and injured into ambulances. "As the area was congested, some ambulances arrived late. The last victim was sent to hospital at least 40 minutes after the attack," said Zhang.
Kunming's No. 1 People's Hospital received dozens of injured. Xinhua reporters saw huge packs of milk piling up in a corner of its emergency ward. On top of the pile was a piece of red paper typed with large black Chinese characters reading, "May the injured recover soon. With compliments from Kunming citizens."
Xinhua reporters were denied access into wards where victims were being treated. In sharp contrast to the widespread horror, panic and fury on Saturday night, most medical workers and patients who were seen walking along the corridors were silent and even numb.
At the city's No. 3 People's Hospital, a lanky teenager with a bandaged arm and bloodstains on the back of his shirt tried to stay away from Xinhua's camera lens, and refused to say a word. His blank expression suggested he was struggling to wake up from the nightmare.
"Saturday's killing lasted less than 30 minutes, but who knows for how long the trauma will haunt us?" asked a Kunming resident who only gave his family name as Wang.
There were queues outside the city's 11 blood donor centers and blood collecting buses. A medical worker at one of the centers said they collected at least five times as much blood than on a normal day.
"Why did such a tragedy happen in Kunming?" asked Yao Dan, a young woman who was in a 20-meter queue waiting to donate blood. "I live near the railway station, so my friends all sent me text messages last night to ask me if I was safe. I told them I was okay, but my heart was bleeding."
