Even as flood waters surrounded a 700-year-old Guanyinge Buddhist Temple in China’s Wuhan, the temple structure stood strong taking the beating.
The temple is built on a rocky island on Yangtze River in Wuhan stood defiant amid historic flooding in the neighbourhood.
This is what you call “as solid as iron”. A more than 700-year-old Buddhist Temple (Guanyin, or
Avalokitesvara Pavilion) in Erzhou, #Hubei province in #China has survived all the floods in more than 700 years, and still holds up in the historical flood on July 14, 2020. pic.twitter.com/oOhfUmRWHW— Jennifer Zeng 曾錚 (@jenniferatntd) July 14, 2020
The Buddhist temple was first constructed during the Song Dynasty and rebuilt in the Yuan Dynasty.
Authorities have adopted measures such as diverting water into back-up reservoirs to keep levels manageable as major rivers and lakes hit record highs.
In Anhui, a dam on the Chu river was demolished Sunday as water levels inched close to historic highs. Local authorities said the action was taken to ensure the safety of people living nearby.
READ: China destroys dam on Chuhe River with explosives to release flood waters
Chinese media said the released water was being channelled into two downstream storage ponds.
Elsewhere, soldiers and workers have been testing the strength of embankments and shoring them up with sandbags and rocks.
Flooding has been a major threat to much of central China for centuries, but experts say the widespread construction of dams in recent decades have cut off connections between rivers, lakes and floodplains and have exacerbated flooding.
The rapid melting of the Himalayan glaciers due to climate change may also be a cause of more dangerous summer flooding.