wonderful prism to view china as a rising nation, the big m money, the marketing, the change in in -- insfrastructui. it was wonderful. but before it happened an earthquake came. >> host: for those that don't remember, that earthquake killed tens of thousands of people. it was the largest quake in the area. you were covering mare mar? >> host: >> guest: i was trying to sneak in. it was very restricted there and they were not letting in any journalists. so i was frustrated i could not get in. i got on a plane and flew to beijing and unaware of the natural disaster. i land in china and turn on the my blackberry and all my colleagues and reporters made a be line and i felt like i missed the story. i was like i could have driven. i should have stayed there. then i started thinking how can i do the story? there must be many ways to skin a cat. i thought this is a place that supplies most guest workers to china. it is like china's appalachian and very poor and people go to other parts of china to work. i thought there must be a lot of people in beijing trying to get back home. what if i follow a group of