Germany Esplanade in Chongqing ends with benefit concert for earthquake victims in the region. Partners and sponsors donate 100,000 euros.

Tomorrow, Saturday, May 17, 2008, the "Germany Esplanade" in the metropolis of Chongqinq, in which Herrenknecht is involved, will be coming to an end with a major benefit concert for earthquake victims in the region of Sichuan and in Chongqing. The "Germany Esplanade" is the main element of the initiative "Germany and China - Moving Ahead Together". At the request of the Chongqing city authorities, the German partners continued the Esplanade despite the earthquake. Partners and sponsors also donated a six-figure sum for relief aid.

Chongqing, Schwanau, May 16, 2008. On Saturday, May 17, 2008 the nine-day "Germany Esplanade" ends in Chongqing with a major benefit concert, with the motto "We’re one family". The concert, at which well-known musical groups from Germany and China will be performing, is taking place between 7.30 and 10.30 p.m. local time on a public square close to the Yangtse River, and will be broadcast by Chinese state television. The benefit concert was instigated immediately after Monday’s severe earthquake in Sichuan province by the sponsors and partners of the initiative "Germany and China - Moving Ahead Together" whose patrons are the German Federal President, Horst Köhler, and the Chinese President, Hu Jintao. In keeping with the express wishes of the city authorities, all of the German partners spontaneously decided to continue with the Esplanade in Chongqing, a city of 32 million inhabitants, in spite of the severe quake in the nearby province of Sichuan. Herrenknecht has its own assembly works for tunnel boring machinery in the city of Chengdu, which was badly hit by the earthquake and which is located around 400km from Chongqing. Fortunately, Herrenknecht’s employees, their families, the factory and the tunnel construction sites have been spared any serious damage according to the latest information.