When Building China’s Cities, Someone Forgot the Drains

choi

Urban Floods  l  At Sea in the City; When building cities, someone forgot the drains. Economist, Aug8, 2015.
("the floods [in China's urban areas] that render roads impassable and sometimes kill people during heavy downpours. They are largely the product of woefully inadequate drains. * * * On July 28th, China Youth Daily said it was 'beyond understanding' that city planners should give priority to high-profile 'vanity project' while ignoring the need for storm drains and the like. 'Money doesn't seem to be a problem,' it said. Residents of Beijing still harbour bitter memories of flooding in 2012 that killed 79 people (mostly outside the urban core) and caused 12 billion yuan ($1.9 billion) in damage.Much of the mayhem was caused by the flooding of underpasses with inadequate drains")

Note: The Chinese essay actually is inane, so is the Economist report. 吴敏文, 别再让一场暴雨瘫痪一座城. 中国青年报, July 28, 2015
http://zqb.cyol.com/html/2015-07 ... b_20150728_7-02.htm
(a) "我居住在一座多雨的南方城市，在春夏季节，瓢泼大雨司空见惯。上周四，天气预报降雨50毫米，连续几阵暴雨下来，全市顿成泽国，市区积水从盈尺到逾米，城市交通大面积停顿。本地经济电视台对渍水“盛况”有全面而鲜活的报道，网友以 “本地房产全面免费升级成无敌海景房”为题截图成文：从内陆城市切换到海景圣地，只需要一场暴雨；车主放浪不羁爱自由，汽车飞驰顿成气垫船；最美是南区，水深一米五；地铁站附近，威尼斯凸显；大道浪花一朵朵，黄浦路成黄浦江."

内陆城市, 南区, 黄浦路 point to 武汉.
(b) The phrase "beyond understanding" in The economist comes from "到今天技术发达、物资丰富、资金充裕，还把面子看得比里子更重甚至全力解决面子问题，就让人不可理喻了" in the essay.
(c) The essay states, "法国大文豪雨果说过：'下水道是城市的良心。' ”
(i) The original text:

Victor Hugo, Hugo's Works: Les Miserables (Jean Valjean), vol 5, book II The Bowels of Leviathan, chap II Ancient History of the Sewer. Wildside Press, 2007, at page 105
https://books.google.com/books?i ... 20drain&f=false
("The forest had its cave, Paris had its drain. * * * It was very natural that those who had for the scene of their daily toil the Vide-Gousset (empty pocket) lane, or the Rue Coupe-Gorge (cutthroat), should have for their nightly abode, the culvert of the Chemin-Vert, or the Hurepoix catchbasin. * * * The drain is the conscience of the city. Everything converges and is confronted there. In this livid spot there are shadows, but there are no secrets. Everything has its true form, or at least its final form. The pile of ordure has this in its flavour, that it tells no lies")
(A) Les Misérables
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Misérables
(published in 1862; the novel "beg[an] in 1815 and culminat[ed] in the 1832 June Rebellion in Paris; In the English-speaking world, the novel is usually referred to by its original French title; section 3 Plot, section 3.5 Volume V – Jean Valjean)

Valjean was a revolutionary against the July Monarchy of Louis-Philippe.  The king crushed revolutionaries. Valjean carried the wounded Marius Pontmercy to escape through sewer (because revolutionaries were besieged).
(C) What does Jean Valjean's name literally mean in english?  Reddit, 2013.
https://www.reddit.com/r/French/ ... _literally_mean_in/
(D) French English dictionary
* vide (adjective masculine; from Latin vacuus): "empty"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vide
* gousset (noun masculine): “fob”

  ^ English dictionary
fob (n): "a small pocket in a man's waistcoat, for holding a watch"
www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/fob
* coupe (noun feminine): “cut <une coupe de cheveux ‘a haircut’>”
* gorge (noun feminine): "1: throat; 3: gorge"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gorge
(ii) Hugo’s view of Paris Sewer in LesMisérables.

Mapping Paris; Hugo's Intestine of Leviathan. Mount Holyoke College, undated.
https://www.mtholyoke.edu/course ... s_Sewers_Page2.html