The Topographic Map and Related River Questions of the North China Plain

In the summer of 1917 severe floods inundated the city of Tientsin for several months. As far as one could see from the roofs of high buildings, the plain to the west was a vast expanse of water with numerous islands — villages on mounds — and junks sailing between them, and the sun set in a horizon of water as if it were the ocean itself. For several weeks the Tientsin inhabitants had noticed that the water on the plain stood unusually high, but it used to be inundated more or less every third or fourth summer, so no one cared particularly. The Hai Ho — the Sea River — Tientsin's navigable access to the sea — was high and flowed with an exceptionally strong current through the city. But this was needed to clean out the mud from the river's bottom, and shipping people expected good navigation conditions the next few years.