ABSTRACT
Having suffered the epidemic disease of ‘severe acute respiratory syndrome’ (SARS) in 2003, all levels of government departments in Beijing have now made emergency plans to respond to such emergency incidents. The emergency preparations mechanism has proved effective in dealing with certain emergencies. On 3 January 2006, a large part of the street road surfaces subsided near
the Jingguang Bridge in Dongsanhuan (the Third Loop Route East). The city government immediately initiated the emergency control scheme for serious accidents. The government quickly contained the situation and won wide praise from all walks of life in the city. However, 6 months later, on 31 July, a rainstorm hit Beijing city and,
although the relevant departments immediately implemented emergency measures, floods occurred under some cloverleaf junctions. Both directions of the expressway to the airport were blocked, which resulted in 200 aeroplanes being delayed. A lot of the public criticism about this matter pointed to the government. The effectiveness of the emergency control plan was widely doubted.
