By continuing you agree to eChinacities's Privacy Policy .
Sign up with Google
Sign up with Facebook
Q: Why there is no standing water on the roads and sidewalks on rainy days in Western cities?
When walk in Tangshan on rainy days, you are better off with fishing gear (boots) than regular shoes. Tangshan is 30 years old city, but on rainy days standing water is everywhere. Is it build intentionally that way, and what is the purpose of standing water on sidewalks and roads? Sometimes, I am thinking it is a joke. I am confused.
11 years 42 weeks ago in Arts & Entertainment - China
It's called planning and doing things correctly. We have storm sewers to take the water away. The Chinees never took rain into consideration when they build.
Mr_spoon:
Nor anything else, actually. The basic thought seems to have been "Gentlemen, let's just make something that looks like something. To hell with all those newfangled preventive measures and safety, just let cement take shapes!".
Like Ted said, in China they don't plan for water flow when it rains, so the water often has nowhere to go and creates giant puddles. Even when there are storm drains, they're not placed in an optimal position and a lot of water runs right by them. If they made a sidewalk or other area with cement, al they'd have to do is just angle it slightly to get the rain to run off of one side. However, a lot of sidewalks in the city where I stayed were made of hundreds of tiles, which certainly didn't help. It's all a lack of planning.
On the contrary, there is some planning on Chinese pavements: distinguished line along the sidewalks for visually impaired is everywhere.
That line is also the safest (driest) place to walk in the rain.
Maybe, it is just 'sloppiness'? ....Careless and unsystematic; excessively casual.
But then again: How can you be 'sloppy', when you build the roads?
Jnusb416:
Well it's nice that they happen to place a special tile on every street for the visually impaired. However, what good does that do when some streets are super wide and don't match up? How are they going to walk that alone? How are they going to cross the street alone when the lights don't have sounds to tell them when to cross, and when cars keep coming? And yet, there is nothing for the physically impaired. Very few places have any kind of wheelchair ramp or elevators. Aren't there more physically impaired than visually impaired?
giadrosich:
Try this, icnif77. Close your eyes, and then, walk across a street in any Chinese city! No peeking!!
But then again, you will probably have no problem at all, seeing as how that is how most Chinese approach crossing the street!
how to be sloppy when building a road? I think the results speak for themselves. They are always uneven and bumpy, both the sidewalks and roads. And, as Jnus said, the tiles here simply don't work well, there's always the odd one sticking out or missing.
WELL IF THE ROADS WERE HIGHER IN THE CENTER AND LOWER ON THE SIDES THE WATER WOULD GO TO THE GUTTER THEN IF THEIR WAS A SLIGHT
DECLINE THE WATER WOULD THEN GO TO THE DRAIN AND FLOW TO THE RIVER
OR OCEAN ITS REALLY ROCKET SCIENCE VERY HARD TO UNDERSTAND LMAO
Because a bunch of hillbillies build the roads instead of people who know what they're doing. So, they don't get the subtle angles and such that it takes to direct water to storm drains.
Like many things in China the roads and footpaths are built quickly with a focus on the look of the final product rather than the quality and long term maintenance. Take for example the paving (some have called them tiles) on the footpath (sidewalks). When first completed they look very nice but soon have all sorts of humps and hollows in them as they are usually just laid over the earth underneath. Often there have been trenches excavated prior to the work or as is very prevalent in China newly laid pavers are dug up and a services trench is excavated because of bad forward planning and then relaid. The thing with any paving or road construction is that for it to be maintained in a decent condition the most important aspect is the compacted base under the surface. Trenches need to be compacted in layers otherwise the ground just subsides. I have NEVER seen this done well in China. After that comes drainage and that requires plans and a crossfall to be angled towards the drainage system. To do this well you need some form of survey or even a basic spirit or water tube level rather than just guessing by eye which way the fall is angled. Put all those things together and then add the fact that the existing drains are probably insufficient to carry the volume of water and certainly not regularly maintained and there is your answer.
The solution in Shenyang where I live when in China is that in the city during and after rain all the orange vested street cleaners suddenly appear at the locations of standing water and start sweeping it in teams of 6 or so towards the drains with those large straw brooms.
In my opinion the poor construction and maintenance of many things is not unique to China. Many countries where labour is very cheap just seem to take the "let it fall to bits and we will just fix it then approach".
/cry
seriously why do people go to another country and then never stop whining about it?
Sometimes I think this site should be called echina whinging expats.com.
icnif77:
You should send message to Admin, about what you think! Especially part of your thinking on 'name of this site'. Seriously!
Scandinavian:
why do people go online and never stop whining about people whining.
