Floods Ruin Crops, Inundate Tiananmen

As southern Europe and North America have been tested by heatwaves and fires, China’s capital city suddenly swung to the other extreme of the weather spectrum in late July – slammed by heavy rainfall that broke a swathe of meteorological records, followed by deadly floods, Sylvie Zhuang reported for South China Morning Post (SCMP).

Beijing’s mountainous and rural areas were the hardest hit, with roads and cars swept away and villages cut off from transport, water, and electricity. I Photo: Xinhua

The downpour lasted four days and Beijing recorded 744.8mm (29.32 inches) of rainfall - exceeding its average annual precipitation.

The rainfall was the heaviest in 140 years – train passengers were left stranded, hundreds of flights were canceled, and even the Forbidden City that hosted emperors for 600 years could not escape flooding.

Beijing’s mountainous and rural areas were the hardest hit, with roads and cars swept away and villages cut off from transport, water, and electricity. More than 1 million people across the city were affected, and nearly 60,000 homes collapsed.

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