This natural pond helps reserve precipitation in the ecological corridor of Qian’an, a city in China’s Hebei province. Like many other Chinese cities, Qian’an used to fall victim to urban flooding during rainy seasons. But things have changed since 2015, when the city was included in a national pilot program for “sponge city” construction.
Mu Yu/Xinhua via Getty Images
JINHUA, China — In the shade of a willow tree, Li Tao and his buddy dabble lines in a slow-moving river channel and occasionally pull out a tiny fish.
“It’s good to have a place like this for people to relax,” says Li, his shirt off in the midday heat.
This place — called Baisha Creek — has come full circle.
The bank used to be concrete, but several years ago, work began to restore wetlands here. Rushes now grow in tall stands, and on islands in the river, weeds thrive on the shallow bank and cicadas buzz in the trees.
Yu Kongjian, the man behind the project, describes a similarly natural scene that existed here 50 years ago when, as a 10-year-old, he was nearly swept away by the water.
Li Tao and his buddy dabble lines in a slow-moving river channel in Jinhua, China, occasionally pulling out a tiny fish.
John Ruwitch/NPR
“It was a huge flood. But I survived. You know why? Because I grabbed the willows, weeds, the reeds, along the riverbank,” he says.
Decades of turbocharged development meant that the riverbank, as…
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