It struck me that in most places when we see pictures of such flooding, they are of people in rafts on small roads in suburbs or villages, not these wide thoroughfares:

Turns out there was a reason - several populated areas were designated as 'flood-storage areas', meaning water was diverted there in order to mitigate flooding in Beijing.

Having seen the flood-response debacle in Australia, i couldn't say China was any worse, but according to the article, most, if not all residents, had no idea they were living in a flood-storage area. They do now.

Below is Aussie floods: