Flooding in Guilin, South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, on June 20, 2024. Photo: VCG

Guilin, a tourism city in South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is making all efforts to fight floods and provide disaster relief, including repairing roads and enhancing ship management to ensure people's safety, as the Lijiang River has experienced its largest flood since 1998, according to local authorities on Thursday.   

At 10 pm on Wednesday, the water level at the Lijiang River Guilin hydrological station had exceeded the warning level by 2.84 meters, reaching a peak flood level, said the Guangxi emergency management authority. 

Chinese authorities have allocated 916 million yuan ($126 million) for flood and drought response efforts in the country's southern and northern regions, and to support disaster relief efforts, the Ministry of Finance said on Wednesday.

Guangxi has urgently allocated 20.2 million yuan in natural disaster relief funds to support local efforts in flood prevention and disaster relief, according to the Guangxi emergency management authority on Thursday.

Guilin on Wednesday night raised its flood control emergency response level from Level-II to Level-I. From June 12 to Wednesday, Guilin had experienced continuous heavy rainfall, with 38 meteorological observation stations breaking historical records for a 24-hour period, Guilin emergency response authorities announced. 

The water level at the Lijiang Guilin hydrological station had started to decrease by Thursday morning compared to the early hours. It is expected that the water levels of the section of the Lijiang River near Guilin will see a slow retreat. The red flood warning in Guilin has also been downgraded to a yellow warning, according to local authorities.

Affected by the high water levels, many roads in the downtown area of Guilin were flooded with deep water, with some underground parking lots in residential areas also flooded. Some residents used boats to evacuate stranded residents, according to media reports.

In Guilin's Yongfu county, some regions were surrounded by floodwaters. Local authorities immediately organized village officials and volunteers to help, using rafts to deliver instant noodles, bottled water, and other necessities to stranded residents.

"My shop is located in a relatively high position, so luckily the water didn't flood into our store," Pan, a café shop owner along Linjiang Road in Guilin, told the Global Times on Thursday, noting that the water had started receding the previous night, and the shops along the road had all closed due to the impact of the flood. 

"We can only wait for the floodwaters to completely recede, clean up the mess, and then we can start operating again," said Pan.

A video of a bride traveling through the floodwaters by boat to her wedding also caught the attention of netizens. Luckily, the bride met firefighters who were on their way to a rescue mission on Wednesday. The wedding venue happened to be the same place as the rescue location. After learning about the situation, the firefighters helped her safely to her wedding, according to fire and rescue authorities.

Guilin Railway Station confirmed on Wednesday that around 8 pm the same day, due to continuous heavy rainfall, there was waterlogging surrounding the station, affecting the entry and exit of passengers. Rail authorities organized for passengers taking trains at Guilin Station to temporarily be transferred to Guilin North Station, the station said in a notice released via its Sina Weibo account. It also apologized for any inconvenience.

An employee of a shop close to the railway station, surnamed Feng, told the Global Times on Thursday that they started to evacuate Wednesday afternoon when water levels started rising. Business operations will temporarily shift to other locations, Feng said.

The Global Times learned that around 11 am on Thursday, members of the Guilin Blue Sky Rescue Team were patrolling flooded areas in search of stranded villagers. Water levels were gradually receding but the flow of the water was still very fast. At noon, they were also cooperating with locals to ensure the safe delivery of rescue supplies to some residents in Lingchuan county.