Beijing Infrastructure Not Fit for Torrential Rains

Last Thursday (June 23rd) torrential rains left much of Beijing paralyzed. Residents struggled to make it home, with parts of the subway system closed and treacherous road conditions.

Now Beijing’s construction and drainage system are being criticized as unfit for sudden torrential downpours.

[Liu Keqiang, Professor of Town Construction, National Taiwan University]:
“Because in the construction of the city there needs to be a lot of cement used, originally the water could flow into the earth but now it gets congested so there is nowhere for most of the water to flow to. Especially when torrential rain comes, the drain system is obviously not enough to cope with sudden torrential rain, so the water gets stuck on the road surface.”

Political commentator Lin Baohua blames the communist regime for constructing sub-standard buildings and roads. He calls it “tofu construction”—a popular term for buildings made out of cheap materials that fall easily during natural disasters.

[Lin Baohua, Political Commentator]:
“The Communist party has always been driven by profit, and it just emphasizes the appearance. Also, right now in China they have built many new tall buildings, roads and high-speed railways. I suspect that these buildings are constructed as if they were built with waste tofu. So when earthquakes or torrential rains occur, sooner or later it will come to light.”

While Beijing hasn’t suffered disasters like the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, that collapsed thousands of buildings, Thursday’s downpour does pose questions as to whether the Chinese capital’s construction is fit to cope with disasters in the future.

On Thursday, some districts of Beijing received over two inches of rain, according to the city’s Meteorological Bureau. More than 170 flights were either delayed or cancelled at the Beijing airport.