There was a new earthquake which just happened today, the Yushu one DD is talking about. That's probably why you just heard about it today LT. The one LE was talking about was ages ago when this post was first made.
Qinghai is pretty sparsely populated which is probably why it wasn't worse. I don't think we have any Saloonies working in Qinghai although I have a friend who was doing PhD research out there. I think she's back in Beijing now but I haven't gotten that confirmed yet.