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China on high alert as Yangtze surges
Nearly 30,000 people in central China have been called up to guard a riverside city as the biggest flood peak in nine years is surging down the Yangtze, one of the world’s most popular river cruise destinations.
The official Xinhua news agency said tens of thousands of people have been summoned to stand guard to stop floodwaters breaching dikes in Jingzhou city, Hubei province.
Authorities declared more than 620 kms of riverbanks at risk along the Yangtze and its tributaries in the city.
They have also called for tighter control of boats and small passenger ships on the Yangtze River to ease river traffic congestion, but UK tour operator to China Wendy Wu Tours said all its cruises along the Yangtze were going ahead as planned.
The 3,219-km-long Yangtze that cuts through China from the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau in the west to the East China Sea killed 33,000 people in its 1954 flood and 1,562 in the 1998 flood.
Rainstorms since the weekend have ravaged many parts of China, including Beijing where the heaviest rain in 60 years caused 37 deaths.
More rainstorms are forecast over coming days.
by Ian Jarrett, TravelMole Asia Pacific editor
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Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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