'All gone': Beijing villagers left with nothing after deadly floods

A man walks past a rain damaged area in Huairou district, Beijing, on July 30, 2025. Heavy rain killed more than 30 people as swaths of northern China were lashed by torrential downpours that sparked landslides and flooding, on July 29, 2025. [AFP]

Villager Hu Yuefang returned to her home on the rural outskirts of Beijing to pick up medicine for her elderly and disabled father, only to find it had been washed away by some of worst flooding to hit the Chinese capital in years.

Swathes of northern China have endured deadly rains and floods this week that killed at least 48 people and forced the evacuation of tens of thousands.