Beijing put all districts on high alert for another bout of torrential rain on Monday, triggering a red rainstorm warning, the capital’s top emergency response and the evacuation of more than 70,000 people from vulnerable areas. The State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters raised its national flood response to Level III for Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and Guangdong after floods a week earlier left at least 44 people dead in the capital’s outskirts. Further south, Hong Kong hoisted its highest “black” rainstorm warning for the fourth time in eight days as 355.7 millimetres of rain fell by 2 p.m., the heaviest August deluge since records began in 1884. The downpour shut hospital clinics, schools, courts and other government services, while airlines delayed or cancelled about 103 flights and public transport operators closed some rail exits. The extreme weather stretched across the Pearl River Delta, with Shenzhen issuing its first city-wide red rainstorm alert since 2018 and Guangdong Province upgrading its flood response to Level II as several rivers rose above danger levels. Meteorologists blamed a stalled East Asian monsoon for the unusually intense rains, which have disrupted infrastructure, complicated recovery from earlier floods and highlighted rising climate-related risks across China’s north and south.