All-out emergency repair efforts are currently underway to block and close the breach after a dike breach in China's second-largest freshwater lake on Friday afternoon.
A dike of the Dongting Lake burst at 17:48 Friday following failed emergency repair efforts in Tuanzhou Township, Huarong County under Yueyang City, causing flooding in the low-lying areas in the vicinity.
Initially, the breach was 10 meters wide later Friday, but it expanded to 226 meters by 11:00 on Saturday, with a water level difference of 0.1 meters. The flooding covers an area of 47.64 square kilometers.
As of Sunday morning, the water level has stabilized. Emergency crews are engaged in busy repair work at both ends of the breach to prevent further expansion.
Surveying drones and remote sensing satellites are being used to collect images of the breach and the surrounding affected area. An emergency rescue vessel from the provincial capital Changsha has arrived to assist with pile driving and placing sandbags to block the breach.
At the same time, rocks have been dumped at the breach through the combination of water and land transportation to fill the gap and prevent the breach from expanding further since Saturday.
A quarry located closest to the dike breach in Dongting Lake operates around the clock, supplying stone materials to the breach. A multitude of excavators tirelessly work in unison, diligently extracting and loading the essential stone materials from the quarry, contributing to the ongoing efforts at the breach.
"Now, as you can see, our operations are running continuously 24 hours a day. On average, we are able to deliver 7,000 to 8,000 tons of stone materials to the dike breach every day. As you can observe, the drilling equipment is synchronized, making it convenient for us to conduct blasting operations during the daytime, ensuring a steady supply of stone materials to the dike breach," said Liu Zhaolong, an employee, Yipuli Company, China Energy Construction Group Co., Ltd.
So far, the dam body has been widened to provide a larger working area, facilitating the emergency operations of heavy machinery and trucks loaded with stone blocks to close the breach.
As of 22:00 Friday, 5,000 residents in the affected area had been safely relocated. There were no immediate reports of trapped individuals or casualties.
Since June 16, Hunan has seen its heaviest rainfall of the year, breaking historical records in some regions.
All-out emergency repair efforts underway after dike breach in China's second-largest freshwater lake
Visiting boundary markers seems to have become a new trend in holiday-making on frontier regions in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province neighboring Russia so far in the week-long National Day holiday that started on October 1.
At the border gateways and boundary monuments on the 2,981-kilometer frontier in Heilongjiang, tourists from all over the country are seen stopping to have photos taken with the boundary monuments or markers, with some listening to stories told by frontier police officers about past events associated with the frontier regions.
In China, the National Day holiday is a peak travel and tourism season.
Lying in the easternmost point of China is the Wusu Town Dongji Square in Fuyuan City of Heilongjiang Province. Next to the huge sculpture bearing the Chinese character of "East" in the square, the five-star Chinese national flag is fluttering in the wind. Just beside the national flag is a boundary monument, which has become an attraction to visitors.
Many of the visitors say that having a picture taken with the boundary monument on the occasion of the National Day holiday would make them feel honored about happy powerful their motherland is.
Li Xin, a police officer with the Wusu Town Border Police Station on duty at the Dongji Square, said he has felt the enthusiasm of visitors.
Li said that the number of tourists visiting the Doingji Square so far in the National Day holiday has doubled compared to the same period of last year.
In Mohe, the northernmost city in China which is more than 2,000 kilometers away from Dongji, visitors are also seen flocking to the Beiji (North Pole) Village to have pictures taken with the local boundary marker.
Zhang Jiale, a police officer with the Arctic Border Police Station in Mohe, expressed the same feeling as Li Xin.
In Suifenhe, another frontier city in Heilongjiang, tourists also seen enthusiastically flocking to the boundary monument beside the third-generation border gateway to have pictures taken with it. The Suifenhe Gateway Scenic Spot is located at the zero point of Suifenhe Highway Port G10 Suiman Expressway, the largest land port to Russia in Heilongjiang Province. It is the only longitudinal cross-border scenic spot in China and the only one that integrates three generations of border gateways in China's gateway scenic spots.
In this scenic spot, tourists frequently ask Wang Jiaxing, a police officer with the Suifenhe Entry-Exit Border Checkpoint on duty, to help take photos or ask about how to make a tourist travel to the neighboring country.
Ke Zunlei, a tourist from Shanghai, visited the site with his wife and young daughter.
"Standing at a frontier region of my own country, I feel that this place is quite sacred," Ke said.
In Hutou Township of Jixi City in the province, the boundary marker "292-1-2014," which marks the starting point of the Wusuli River between China and Russia, also attracts many visitors to make a visit and take photos.
Visiting boundary markers becomes new trend in China's National Day holiday travel
