CHINA DAILY | HONG KONG EDITION Monday, July 26, 2021 | 3 TOP NEWS

Extreme weather Motorist Sports brand winning alerts people to danger in consumers’ hearts after flooded tunnel flood relief donation

By YANG ZEKUN in Zhengzhou By CHEN NAN the younger generations, Erke [email protected] [email protected] experienced a decline in the market during the past few After noticing the rapidly rising Henan province has been in the years. water in a tunnel in Zhengzhou, headlines since it was hit with tor- In 2020, its revenue was 2.8 Henan province, during the rential rains that left people dead, billion yuan, far behind Chinese heavy downpour on Tuesday, Hou missing and impaired. sportswear brands like Li-Ning, Wenchao recalled what had hap- With donations, supplies and founded by the similarly named pened in Beijing in 2012 when a condolences rolling in, Chinese champion gymnast, which had rainstorm caused the deaths of 79 businesses are setting a positive sales of 14.4 billion yuan in 2020, people. example. and Anta Sports, founded in He immediately got out of his car One of them is sportswear 1991, which had 35.5 billion yuan and rushed to warn others in nearby company Erke, which donated in sales last year. cars to leave and move to a higher 50 million yuan ($7.71 million) While praising Erke’s strong place — a move that helped save Soldiers from the People’s Armed Police Force fortify a dam on Saturday after a local river overflowed worth of flood relief supplies sense of social responsibility, neti- dozens of people. due to recent downpours in Xinxiang, Henan province. WANG JING / CHINA DAILY and other aid. After Erke zens also called on the company Over the weekend, a video of Hou announced the move on social to do more marketing to increase knocking on the car doors one after media on Wednesday, it their sales. another went viral online. In the received widespread support. One netizen left messages for video, he shouted, “Get out now and By noon on Saturday, its social Wu, giving suggestions on the go to higher places!” and “Do you Henan strives to restore media post had about 10 million company’s product design and want your car or your life?” His likes and over 270,000 comments, marketing strategy. courage and care are being widely most of them expressing respect “The company’s donation to praised by netizens. and support for the company. Henan deserves respect. As a Hou, 43, is a native of Henan. He What made Erke’s donation consumer, I suggest that your got stuck in traffic in the Jingguang residents’ everyday life so impressive that it went viral products need simpler designs. North Road Tunnel, a major artery is the gift was a huge sum for the For the colors, you can lower the in central Zhengzhou, when the company, considering that its saturation. The quality of the downpour hit the city. Over 1.31m relocated; work underway noodles and some medical materi- business didn’t seem to develop photos of your products also “Around 4 pm, I was trapped in a als to a village in the flood-ravaged very smoothly over the past few needs to be higher,” the netizen relatively high place inside the tun- to repair bridges, reconnect power, gas city. An aircraft also mapped the years. wrote. nel surrounded by water, and at village and its surrounding areas to A comment left by a netizen about 5:40 pm, I suddenly noticed By Shi Baoyin in Zhengzhou “We need to hurry up to check facilitate relief work. called Baibutao ranked No 1 under that the water level was quickly ris- and LI LEI in Beijing sectors that are prone to flooding, By the end of Saturday, the air- the topic. “It feels like you’re going ing, with the water reaching two- prepare enough flood control craft had delivered more than 60 out of business, but you donated thirds of the way up the car’s wheels Authorities in Central China’s materials and fortify the rescue metric tons of food, drinking so much,” Baibutao wrote. The company’s in 10 minutes,” he said. Henan province are racing against effort so as to brace for the next water and medical necessities to “The company has been keep- donation to Henan the clock to restore normalcy after rainfall,” Li said. 17 badly affected villages in the ing a low profile. It’s certainly a more than a week of downpours In the 24 hours from 7 am on Fri- city’s Huixian county. Nearly good deed that deserves to be deserves respect. inundated homes, overfilled rivers day to 7 am on Saturday, torrential 20,000 people live in the villages. seen by more people,” wrote As a consumer, I and reservoirs, killed 63 people rains continued to lash the Henan As of 4 pm on Saturday, more another netizen. If I hadn’t and left five missing as of noon on cities of Luoyang, Pingdingshan, than 8,800 soldiers from the Peo- On Thursday evening, Erke’s suggest that your asked them Sunday, a local official said. Shangqiu, Kaifeng and Hebi. ple’s Liberation Army and the livestreaming channel on Tao- products need The rainstorms have affected The provincial government said People’s Armed Police Force, and bao, Alibaba’s e-commerce plat- to get out, nearly 11.45 million residents in 139 six monitoring stations registered over 16,000 members of the mili- form, attracted over 2 million simpler designs.” and more counties across the province since precipitation in excess of 50 mm over tia and reserve forces had been people — a big increase from its A netizen people died, I would July 16, said Li Changxun, deputy the period. Several rivers were swol- deployed in flood relief and usually less than 10,000 view- head of the province’s Department len due to continual rainfall, and 13 reconstruction efforts in more ers. The popularity continued have blamed myself of Emergency Management. large and 44 medium-sized reser- than 10 affected areas in Henan, on Friday evening, when its for the rest of my life.” More than 1.31 million residents voirs in the province saw their water according to the PLA Central The- livestreaming channel drew 2.8 have been relocated to safe places, he levels exceed the flood season marks. ater Command. About 840 vehi- over 7.5 million viewers. The sta- billion yuan Hou Wenchao, who saved many said at a news conference on Sunday Zhou Xuewen, secretary-general cles and engineering machines, tistics also show that within 36 people’s lives before the Jing- Revenue of sportswear afternoon in the provincial capital of the State Flood Control and and over 140 boats and three heli- hours, Erke sold over 67 million company Erke in 2020 guang North Road Tunnel flooded Zhengzhou, where floodwaters have Drought Relief Headquarters, went copters were dispatched. yuan worth of goods on all of its receded after inundating the sub- to oversee flood control and rescue Soldiers have helped local social media platforms. Hou was working in Beijing way system and streets last week. efforts on the ground in cities of authorities reinforce dikes and According to e-commerce giant Wu Rongzhao replied: “What when the capital was ravaged by a A total of 876,600 hectares of Zhengzhou, Hebi and Anyang on build makeshift flood banks. In JD.com, on Thursday and Friday, you said is very professional. We rainstorm in 2012. He read many crops have been affected, and hun- Saturday. Zhengzhou, more than 5,000 Chinese sportswear companies’ used to focus on the quality of media reports then about how peo- dreds of thousands of houses have Zhou is also vice-minister of troops helped residents and busi- overall sales increased 280 percent the products, hoping to give the ple got trapped in cars in low-lying collapsed, Li said, adding that both emergency management and ness owners clear roads and year-on-year. Erke saw a 52-fold consumers better experiences of areas and then lost their lives, and repair crews were hurrying to fix water resources. remove debris and mud. In sales increase on Friday. wearing our products. We will the situation triggered his memory. bridges, electrical substations and The Ministry of Agriculture and Xuchang, military health workers “Thanks to you, Erke has made also work hard on the design. We “I grabbed my phone and gas pipelines to help return peo- Rural Affairs dispatched experts have sterilized houses, performed headlines, and we’ve received welcome you to join us if you umbrella and quickly got out. I ple’s lives to normal. to the rainstorm-hit provinces of health exams for villagers and lots of warm messages. I want to work in this field.” knew that if I stayed in the car Of the city’s 473 major residen- Henan­ and Hebei to mitigate crop distributed medicines. thank all of you, and let’s draw Just after midnight on Sunday and the water kept rising, I’d be tial communities hit by electricity losses. The flooding has disrupted the together to help He­nan,” said Wu morning, Wu posted on Sina unable to get out, and that would outages, power has returned to 301 Authorities in Xinxiang, which is supply of thermal coal in the prov- Rongzhao, chief executive of Weibo about the company’s be a disaster,” he said. of them and 41 have access to tem- a 90-minute drive from Zheng- ince. To ease the shortage, railway Erke, who appeared in the live-­ growth and struggles since it was But Hou noticed that many peo- porary supplies. Four major water zhou, said 1.71 million, or one- authorities have asked Shanxi and streaming channel on Taobao on born two decades ago. ple around him stayed in their cars. supply plants that ground to a halt fourth, of its residents were Shaanxi provinces and other major Friday. “I am deeply touched by “In 2003, half of our equipment He rushed to knock on the car because of the outages also affected by the flood as of Saturday. coal-producing areas to dispatch your feedback. We will continue and materials were destroyed by doors to tell them to get out. resumed work, and the gas supply On Friday, three military helicop- 60 coal trains to Henan each day. to do a good job in bringing out a flood. In 2008, the company “There wasn’t much time, and it had returned to 99 percent of the ters airlifted 200 packages of bot- products and services,” he also went through the global financial was too late to explain in detail, so pre-disaster level. tled water, 50 large boxes of instant Zhao Lei contributed to this story. told netizens during the live-­ crisis. In 2015, a massive fire I just told them if they didn’t get streaming to buy rationally. raged through our factory. out, their lives would be in danger,” The company, founded in 2000 Despite all those setbacks, we he said. and headquartered in Xiamen, survived and still believe in There were two main reasons Help arrives Fujian province, has over 7,000 bringing out products with people didn’t want to leave their branch companies around the craftsmanship,” Wu wrote. “It’s cars. One is they have limited Firefighters from Xiaogan, Hubei world. Wu said in an early inter- not true that the company is on knowledge about safety in such a province, who are participating view that it started from a small the verge of bankruptcy. We’ve situation, and the other is they don’t in flood relief work in Zhengzhou, factory in Jinjiang, a city known as been working hard on changing want to leave their cars behind. Henan province, deliver drinking the “footwear capital”, in Fujian. our marketing strategy and have “But people quickly realized how water to flood-affected residents Wu’s father ran a shoemaking achieved results. serious the situation was when I on Saturday. The city’s four business in the 1980s and Wu, “It is a total surprise that the shouted at them,” he said. major water supply plants, along with his elder brother Wu company received so much Hou said he knocked on the doors which had ground to a halt due to Rongguang, joined the family attention from netizens. We are of more than 20 cars, and other peo- power outages, resumed work on business after graduating from flattered by and grateful for their ple also helped. About 400 people Sunday. Multiple departments universities. support. Chinese people are left the tunnel and went to a nearby were working to help people However, compared with oth- kindhearted and united. We viaduct to wait for rescue. resume their lives. er Chinese sportswear enter- believe in the rise of Chinese “There were children, women CAI YANG / XINHUA prises, which have attracted lots enterprises. We can make it,” he and old people, and we helped of consumers, especially among wrote. each other to get over the guard- rail. The whole process lasted about 20 minutes, and when we vice of all buses crossing bridges over looked back, all the cars were sub- Typhoon: All flights in Hangzhou canceled due to In-Fa the Huangpu River had been sus- merged,” he said. pended. Large passenger buses and Hou got home around 2 am, and large trucks had been banned from he later got sick from spending From page 1 province had been relocated to saf- In explaining why Typhoon In-Fa Beijing South Railway Station were taking the Shanghai Yangtze River hours in the water and rain. er places by Saturday night, accord- had swirled farther north than suspended starting at 1:30 pm. All Bridge connecting Chongming Recalling the dreadful moment, The Zhejiang emergency man- ing to Zhejiang Daily. expected, Zhang Yan, deputy high-speed trains bound for Shang- Island with downtown Shanghai. Hou said he just did what he was agement department called for “I’ve never seen such heavy director of the Zhejiang Meteoro- hai from all directions had been Shanghai continued its second- supposed to do. immediate flood prevention meas- rains in my life,” 70-year-old vil- logical Station, said the storm was suspended beginning at 7 pm on highest level of typhoon warning “If I hadn’t asked them to get out, ures, saying that school classes, lager Qiu Achun said on Sunday unbalanced and, due to the mutual Sunday. and third-highest level of rain- and more people died, I would have production work, markets and afternoon as she was being relo- rotational effect of it and Typhoon All passenger flights at Shang- storm warning on Sunday night. blamed myself for the rest of my road traffic were to be suspended cated to higher land by local fire- Nepartak, which was forming on hai’s two airports were canceled on The city’s meteorological life,” he said. when necessary. fighters in Keqiao district of its tail, the two typhoons were Sunday, a rare move in typhoon authority said that the core con- Rescuers were busy pumping Hangzhou Xiaoshan Interna- Shaoxing, Zhejiang. Shaoxing, in “comparatively weak”. control, according to the Shanghai vection zone, the area surrounding water from the 1,835-meter Jing- tional Airport canceled all flights in the northern part of the province, “All these factors have contribut- Airport Authority. the eye of the storm, was expected guang North Road Tunnel over the and out of Hangzhou on Sunday, was forecast to receive the heavi- ed to the northward adjustments In addition, the municipality’s to reach Shanghai on Sunday weekend. By 7 am on Saturday, all with more expected to be canceled est rain in Zhe­jiang, with torren- to the actual route of In-Fa,” she subway operator announced that night, with rainstorms and high stranded cars in the tunnel, which on Monday. Local traffic authori- tial rains forecast for the next said. all sections of line running above winds possibly continuing until numbered over 260, had been ties also closed off or imposed traf- several days. In neighboring Shanghai, the ground and on elevated tracks had Tuesday. pulled out, and four bodies were fic flow restrictions on all The typhoon had previously municipal railway authority been suspended since Sunday aft- found, according to a report by expressways in Zhejiang. been forecast to make landfall in announced on Sunday that all ernoon to ensure safety. Contact the writers at ThePaper, an online news outlet. Over 1.1 million residents in the Taizhou, to the south of Zhoushan. trains bound for Shanghai from Also since Sunday afternoon, ser- [email protected]