NOWHERE TO GO: On July 22, many passengers remain stranded in the Beijing Capital International Airport (CFP)

Emergency relief

As Beijing was suffering from the deluge, Weibo, a Chinese micro-blog, played a very important role in providing help to people in need.

With more than 80,000 people stranded in the Beijing Capital International Airport, Wang Lu, a 29-year-old resident, initiated a "free ride" campaign. Wang posted on his Weibo page at 10:32 p.m. on July 21, calling volunteers driving private cars to the airport to pick up passengers for free.

Within two hours, more than 300 people joined him and drove to the airport. Police officers in the airport opened a green lane for the free-ride cars and helped passengers aboard. "I was deeply touched by what they did," said passenger Qing Qing. "I never thought I could get out of the airport in such heavy rain, as buses operated by the airport couldn't work and only a few taxis came to the airport."

Throughout the night, volunteers picked up more than 500 passengers from the airport.

TO THE RESCUE: Rescuers evacuate children from a flood-ravaged school in Beijing's Fangshan District on July 22 (CFP)

"A group of primary students and teachers got trapped in a school in Fangshan due to flood caused by heavy rains," said micro-blogger Genqin in a post at 7:14 p.m. on July 21, asking for help.

After receiving the information, Beijing's fire departments immediately dispatched a rescue team of 50 firefighters. Within one hour, all the students and teachers were rescued.

A total of 3,200 soldiers and more than 4,000 traffic police were mobilized for rescue and evacuation missions across Beijing on July 21. More than 12,000 drainage workers and water utility workers pumped out nearly 1.4 million cubic meters of water.

The city's sanitation workers also went above and beyond the call of duty to clean up the mess caused by the flooding. One sanitation worker was spotted submerging himself almost completely to clear a blocked sewage drain on Baiyi Road in Haidian District.

Other workers were seen acting as "human road signs" near the Beitaiping Bridge, standing in deep pools and guiding vehicles to evade manholes, as a lot of manhole covers were forced out by underground water pressure.