When a magnitude-6.2 earthquake struck just before midnight on Monday, Ma Shijun, a student at Dahejia Middle School in the plateau county of Jishishan in northwest China’s Gansu Province, ran out of the dormitory barefoot without grabbing a coat.
With temperatures plummeting below minus 10 degrees Celsius, Ma found his hands slightly numb in the cold as teachers promptly organized students to seek refuge on the playground.