After 500 Years Trying to Tame Fatal Floods, China Tries a New Way

A bridge stands under construction over the Yangtze River in downtown Chongqing, China, on Wednesday, July 29, 2020. For centuries, China's response to its unruly rivers has been to try to restrain them with levees, dams and canals to "make the high mountain bow its head and make the river yield its way," as Chairman Mao Zedong put it. On the northeastern fringe of Chongqing, the rising district of Yuelai has been designed as a "sponge city" to soak up heavy precipitation and release it slowly into the river and reservoirs. Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images