Those dragon birds on top of East and West pagodas, in central Kunming, are the ones controlling flooding. Maybe they havent got their yearly amount of incense and rice wine?
Legend says only once were they so enraged, that they flew off the pagodas. Thats when they went to attack japanese planes.
I think the flooding 4(?) years ago was worse than we had recently - but perhaps the infrastructure to accommodate all that water was even worse back then.
@Janjal
You might have notised that after that they started removing sand and dirt from the drains which apearently hadn't been done for years. This year I didn't see any of that; maybe just because I didn't see it or the system is now clean or they have fallen back in the old system of neglect, I don't know.
Yes, the flooding 4 years ago was attributed to blocked drains, and culverts grills, that had not been cleared of trash. Basically, branches and twigs get caught in the metal bars, and these then catch plastic bags, papers and anything else that floats through.
After they cleared it up, it was said that there would be a program to clear these culverts, before rainy season. I believe it was done the following year, but after that, I don't know.
However, 4 years ago I think it was the first big rains of the season that caused the problem. This year, we had a lot of heavy rain, before the big storm on 20 July; that preceded the flooding. If you look at the news, there is still flooding occurring around Kunming.
Also, Kunming is considered downstream, as Dianchi is the closest thing to an ocean around here. Add the many reservoirs built to hold water for a city it's size, plenty of water from other areas of Yunnan end up in Kunming, and the rest of Yunnan rained even heavier. Also, even more water has been diverted to Kunming for those man made water falls. The flooding this year didn't seem as bad as last time, seems mostly areas past the 1st ring, whereas last time, it felt like you couldn't go anywhere. Anyone know if the metro was affected?
Tiger Tiger.
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