Thanks to its sound drainage system, the 600-year-old Forbidden City has remained flood-free amid heavy rains hitting the Chinese capital Beijing, The Beijing News reported.
Nestled at the heart of Beijing, the centuries-old city was the Chinese Imperial palace from years 1410 to 1912, which covered the Ming and Qing dyansties.
On Wednesday, Beijing has issued an orange alert as torrential rain continued to deluge the city, forcing flight cancellation and disrupting traffic.The said alert is the second-highest in the country's four-tier warning system.
The city's water authority has also issued the first-ever flood warning for the North Canal on the same day. Another two orange alerts were raised for two section of the canal.
The Beijing News noted that last Wednesday's flooding was the heaviest that the canal has seen in around two decades.
Chinese News Service wrote that fishes were even seen around a storm drain at the capital city's West Railway Station due to overflowing.
According to The Beijing News, the rain was somewhat similar, though less severe, to the extreme rainfall that lashed the city on July 21, 2012. The weather incident four years ago left 79 citizens dead and was regarded as the heaviest in over 60 years.
The recent rain lasted for 30 hours -- 13 hours more than 2012's -- but registered lower intensity of precipitation. Data shows that while 56.8 mm fell per hour this month, 2012' storm brought an average of 100 mm of rain each hour.
The Beijing Morning News quoted China National Meteorological Center weather forecaster Ma Xuekuan on Wednesday, saying that Beijing experienced a less hash severity of convection currents compared with the relentless rain that drenched the city in 2012.
Apart from Beijing, the orange alert was maintained across the country. The rain hit parts of other provinces including Tianjin, Hebei, Laioning, Jilin, Shandong, Jiangsu, Hubei, Hunan and Yunnan.