On Saturday I came across a Beijinger, Yu Shitong, in Mashiki, one of the districts hit hard by the April 16 earthquake in Kumamoto prefecture in southwest Japan. He was helping local evacuees as a volunteer. Some 90,000 people in Kumamoto prefecture are still living in evacuation centers.

This is the 40-something Yu's first trip to Japan; he speaks not a single word of Japanese. After watching the earthquake jolt Kumamoto on TV, he packed his bags and came to what should be a strange place for him to lend a helping hand. What made him do that? He said his experience as a volunteer in Wenchuan, Southwest China's Sichuan province, which was devastated by a powerful quake in 2008, inspired him to lend a helping hand in Mashiki.

Yu rode a bicycle to Mashiki to help with the rescue and relief work during the day and returned to sleep in one of the evacuation centers in Kumamoto city at night. "This is a rewarding experience. It enables me to know how Japan organizes volunteers. It is amazing that they let foreigners like me in as soon as we came," Yu said.