East China's Anhui Province has taken a slew of flood control and disaster relief measures to ensure people's safety and minimize losses as torrential rains continue to pummel many areas of the province.
As of 16:00 Sunday, rainstorms had wreaked havoc in 35 counties and districts in six prefecture-level cities in Anhui, according to the provincial emergency management department.
The Yangtze River, China's longest river, has seen water levels in the Anhui section exceed their warning marks, and continue rising. Torrential rains have also pushed waters above their alert levels in another 19 rivers in the province.
Torrential rains lashed a large swathe of the province in the 24 hours to 17:00 Sunday, with 258 stations receiving precipitations exceeding 100 mm with the largest being 255 mm.
In emergency response to rainstorms and flooding, authorities in eight cities in Anhui, including five cities along the Yangtze River, have sent a total of 26,000 people to patrol dikes.
In Datong Township of Tongling City, the water level at Datong hydrologic station has risen by over 40 centimeters to reach 15.05 meters compared to Sunday.
Certain areas along the riverbank have been submerged. Local authorities have installed sluice gates to fight flood, which enhances their flood-control capacity.
At present, rescuers transferred and relocated about 41 local residents from 23 households.
From 08:00 on Sunday to 08:00 on Monday, the average precipitation in the urban area of Tongling was 46.7 millimeters, with the maximum precipitation reaching 74.1 millimeters.
The water level in the Chizhou section of the Yangtze River has also rapidly risen due to continuous heavy rainfall and upstream inflows, surpassing the warning level.
In Chizhou's Dongzhi County, local firefighters promptly initiated rescue operations to evacuate stranded residents, particularly those residing in low-lying areas. As of Sunday, a total of 1,906 people from 827 households in the city had moved to safe places.
East China's Anhui takes flood control, disaster relief measures as heavy downpours continue
China and Kazakhstan have witnessed an upsurge in people-to-people and cultural exchanges in recent years, a development that Chinese President Xi Jinping hailed in a signed article published in Kazakh media outlets prior to his visit to the central Asian country.
Xi arrived for a state visit to Kazakhstan on Tuesday, where he will also attend the 24th Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
On the same day, the signed article from the Chinese president was published in the Kazakhstanskaya Pravda newspaper and Kazinform International News Agency under the title "Staying True to Our Shared Commitment and Opening a New Chapter in China-Kazakhstan Relations."
In the article, Xi highlighted the enduring friendship between the Chinese and Kazakh peoples, citing an example involving Chinese musician Xian Xinhai and Kazakh composer Bakhytzhan Baikadamov.
Over 80 years ago, Xian and Baikadamov met and became close and devoted friends despite their different nationalities and languages.
"In 1943, my father happened to meet Xian Xinghai, who was sitting on a box holding a violin. Seeing how helpless and homeless Xian was, my father took his hand and brought him home," Baikadamova's daughter Baldyrgan said.
Xi also mentioned the much-respected Kazakh ophthalmologist Saulebek Kabibekov, who treated more than 200,000 patients during his 25-year stay in northeastern China.
There was also a nod to the hugely popular Kazakh singer Dimash Kudaibergen, who took China by storm after he won the second place in a popular reality singing competition, "Singer 2017", and later had the chance to meet Xi.
"I first met President Xi in 2017. After the performance, he came to me and told me about his impressions [of] my work and musical journey in China. Since then, I've been exploring Chinese culture and history which, of course, has inspired me infinitely," said Kudaibergen.
People-to-people exchanges between the two countries have also become more frequent since mutual visa-exemption arrangements took effect last year, facilitating greater travel between the two sides.
Last year, a total of 600,000 cross-border trips were recorded. In the first quarter of 2024, the number of visits in both directions had already amounted to 200,000 and are expected to reach a new high by the end of the year.
China, Kazakhstan see upsurge in people-to-people, cultural exchanges
