Even 24 years later, the veteran Chinese media figure, Song Ying, in her seventies, couldn’t help but cry when recalling the scene of witnessing the south tower of the World Trade Center in New York being hit.
“I saw the second plane flying over, flying so low, very dangerous. I thought in my heart: maybe this is our plane coming to film the scene? Just as I was thinking this, before I could finish, it crashed into the south tower,” Song Ying said. “I immediately screamed in shock, then cried loudly, realizing it was a terrorist attack. While crying out loud, I forgot to take pictures, just watched it crash like that. People on the street were screaming like me, crying. I still get emotional thinking about it…”
On the morning of September 11, 2001, at 6 a.m., the 48-year-old Song Ying, as usual, went to the Marriott Hotel’s fitness center on the 23rd floor of the north tower of the World Trade Center in downtown Manhattan, New York to swim. She exercises five times a week.
She started with running on the treadmill, did some chest exercises, and then went swimming. She liked the services and facilities there because after swimming, she could wash and dry her clothes and put them back in her locker, ready to wear the next day.
After swimming and preparing herself, she entered the elevator around 8:44 or 8:45, getting ready to go to work in nearby offices.
“I think it didn’t even take 2 minutes to get into the elevator, and it stopped. All the lights went out, the elevator was swaying from side to side, and it hit the side walls, clang, clang, clang,” Song Ying recalled. “Later I learned that when the first plane hit the north tower, the entire building was shaking violently. Inside the elevator in the dark, swaying from side to side, it was terrifying. I had no idea what was happening inside, just me alone in the elevator, everything was dark. It felt so long, maybe 5 to 10 minutes, I really didn’t know how long. Suddenly, the light in the elevator came on, and it slowly went down – that elevator was really good. It saved my life. If it had broken, I would have died, unable to escape.”
After reaching the lobby, Song Ying saw chaos outside. Through the window, she could see the fire upstairs, and bricks and other debris falling from the sky. The car alarms on the street were blaring… It took more than ten minutes before the police allowed people to leave the north tower.
Song Ying walked out and immediately headed north along the river, taking out her camera she always carried with her to take pictures. Just one block away, she saw a plane crashing into the south tower of the World Trade Center.
“9/11 changed America,” Song Ying told Epoch Times in a 24th-anniversary reflection of the 9/11 event. “Since 9/11, because America focused all its energy on fighting terrorists, it allowed the CCP to enter the World Trade Organization and expand opportunistically. So, 9/11 indeed changed America and the world.”
However, the 9/11 terrorist attacks also made Song Ying love America even more.
“People like us, who swam through difficulties to Hong Kong and then to America, finally escaped the persecution of the Communist Party for ourselves and future generations. That’s why we love our country very much,” she said. “Seeing enemies who can’t stand the greatness of America trying to undermine and destroy it only makes me love America more.”