Ancient China Had Such a Brilliant Drainage System!

China was hit with severe rainstorms this summer, but the Palace Museum, aka the Forbidden City, remained free of flooding.

On the walls of the museum, you can see these intricately carved dragons with excess water flowing out from their mouths.

Although it was raining hard, visitors wearing colorful raincoats kept coming in and wait in line to go into the museum.

The main building, Taihe Palace, was built on high foundations with rock. Every rainy season, the carved dragon would spit water, using the natural advantage of its physical features. The excess water would flow out from 9 dragons mouths, into the canal and then to the sewer outside of the city.

The gardens in the palace are also higher in the middle and lower on both sides to facilitate water movement.

Take the three front halls as an example: the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Central Harmony and the Hall of Preserving Harmony are built on three steps. The drainage holes at the base of the steps avert the steps from flooding. Every garden and courtyard has open and blind drainage pipes, which make the Forbidden City floodproof.

Water will flow out from the sculpture animals into the canal below. 

ditch

In order for the Palace to store more excessive water, architectures dug another river. Even if all the excess water was stored here, the level of water would only increase by 1 meter, so that it wouldnt affect inside of the city.

Photo credit: China Daily

Author: Sandra

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