(Beijing, 29th July 2025) – Beijing recently experienced a rare and severe torrential rainstorm in decades, causing widespread flooding in many areas, resulting in a large number of casualties and missing persons. The torrential rain triggered flash floods and mudslides, causing severe damage to urban areas. Videos showing the Beijing Forbidden City’s “royal road turned into a river” have gone viral on the internet, sparking public outrage.
According to official reports from Beijing, as of late night on July 28th, the average precipitation in Beijing reached 165.9 millimeters, with the highest recorded precipitation of 543.4 millimeters in Langfangyu and Zhujiayu in Miyun District. The highest rainfall intensity occurred in Dongyu in Huairou District, with rainfall reaching 95.3 millimeters within one hour.
The extreme rainfall has led to serious disaster situations. The official report from the Chinese Communist Party stated that as of now, there have been 30 deaths due to the disaster in the city, with 28 in Miyun and 2 in Yanqing. Due to the CCP’s tendency to cover up the truth, the actual death toll may be higher than the official figures.
According to CCTV reports, there are 31 damaged roads in the city, with 16 routes including Xingyang Line and Xihuo Road still not repaired. 136 villages have experienced power outages, severe damage to communication facilities, with 62 fiber optic cables broken and 1825 base stations out of service.
A resident of Beijing, Wang Huaping (pseudonym), told Dajiyuan on the 29th, “It’s a big trouble for us. Our neighborhood is low-lying, the underground garage is all flooded, and the elevator is not working. People in Miyun were awakened in their sleep to evacuate, but still, dozens of people died, some crushed by mudslides and washed away by floods. Even the Forbidden City is flooded now. My neighbor went there to help clear the water.”
Residents of Xiwanzi Village in Miyun described a sudden flood evacuation with hundreds of people evacuating overnight. Li Jing (pseudonym), a resident of Yanqing, told Dajiyuan, “We don’t know what to do. Suddenly, the water rushed in overnight. I heard that some people were washed away, we seem to have three people dead here, the news said 2, and several people are missing, bodies have not been found yet. This rain is terrifying, never seen anything like it.”
A villager from Sunhugou Village in Liulimiao Town, Huairou District, Beijing, told Dajiyuan in the morning of the 29th that they knew of four people washed away in their village, with over three hundred missing.
Disaster prevention experts criticize Beijing’s outdated disaster prevention system. Shen Xiangyang (pseudonym), a disaster prevention expert from Shantou, Guangdong, said in an interview that Beijing’s drainage system construction is significantly lagging behind: “In recent years, Beijing has been busy building tall buildings and commercial buildings, but urban planning has not been able to cope with extreme weather. The collapse of the drainage system this time is the responsibility of the bureaucratic system, and mistakes should be analyzed and held accountable afterwards. Now Beijing’s urban area is heavily paved, rainwater cannot infiltrate, can only rush into the drainage system quickly, causing system paralysis. This is the main reason.”
This disaster also affected the Beijing Forbidden City, a historic landmark, attracting public attention. A widely circulated video showed severe flooding on the royal road of the Forbidden City, with rainwater gushing out of the palace walls, netizens joking that “the emperor is going to ride a dragon boat through the streets.” Although the “#ForbiddenCityFlooded” topic briefly made it to the top of Weibo’s hot search, it was deleted hours later, without reports from mainstream state media like Xinhua News Agency or People’s Daily.
On social media platforms, citizens are discussing extensively. Some quipped, “You can see a water city without going to Venice.” Others sarcastically commented, “The drainage designed by the Qing Dynasty has lasted for hundreds of years, yet the modern ones collapse with a single rainstorm.” Some questioned, “If citizens didn’t upload videos, who knew the Forbidden City would also flood?”
As of the 29th, the rainstorm warning level has been downgraded from orange to yellow, and some metro lines are gradually resuming service. However, the risk of secondary disasters such as flash floods and landslides remains high.
Regarding this sudden rainstorm in Beijing, expert Shen Xiangyang believes that this is not just a natural disaster, but rather a severe test of the city’s infrastructure. Faced with escalating extreme weather, is Beijing prepared? He stated, “This flood has exposed some issues that are usually hidden. Once the water recedes, what needs to be investigated and fixed cannot be delayed any longer.”