The alertness and quick thinking of an ayi saved a child from being abducted at Chongwenmen, beijingkids has learned.

The boy’s father, a prominent member of Beijing’s international community, shared his story in the hope of warning others. (Names are withheld for reasons of safety.)

“Where we live there’s a communal area outside the shopping mall and all the kids play there in the evening,” he told us. His son was approached by a young man who had bought a cheap toy and engaged him in conversation.

“The ayi saw this and didn’t take that much notice, because my son is quite a sociable guy. Then she noticed there was about half a dozen people moving around and getting closer: six young guys, and a middle-aged guy and middle-aged woman. Once they realized they’d got a connection, this guy was on WeChat, and we assume that it was to connect up with a car.”

The ayi realized what was happening and quickly brought the child inside.

“We’re going through the police and the mall security because that area has cameras,” the father said. He suggested parents should be particularly careful.

“It’s just a bit of a heads up for people,” he said. “It’’s a random thing generally, but when you’ve got organized gangs that’s a different matter.”

And of course the ayi has been rewarded for her vigilance.

“Yes, she just had a hongbao!” the dad said.

Child abductions are tragically common in China, usually of young children who are then raised as their own by the abductor or the person who hired them. It is an extreme response to childlessness in a society where children are seen as a safety net in old age. However this is the first report of an attempt at kidnapping targeted at the international community that beijingkids is aware of since 2011, when there was concern about predatory attacks on teenage girls. We continue to caution against circulating reports of kidnapped children on WeChat when the source cannot be verified.

(This article originally stated that the incident took place at Chaoyangmen, and has been corrected. Apologies for any confusion.)

Photo: www.avontuura.com

Yesterday, the government issued a blue weather warning, denoting that there would be “localized and sudden instances of torrential rain,” which we’re only just seeing the full effects of and led to the warning being upgraded to orange at midday today, warning of flooding around the city. The heavy downpours are forecast to continue until tomorrow and have so far caused the cancelation of 50 flights and the delay of another 100.

This rain can’t help but remind us of that fateful day on July 21, 2012, when 79 people died during one particularly extraordinary rainstorm. It also serves as a reminder to be safe, no matter how much fun you’re having getting absolutely soaked.

Thanks to groundbreaking waterproof technology, you can now watch the whole mess live or catch some highlights from Weibo below:

Yesterday, the storm caused part of the Juyongguan Great Wall in Changping to collapse, leading to blockage of the highway below.

Gaode has released a handy interactive map (see screenshot above) showing the worst affected areas.

October has been an unusual month to say the least, one day it’s blue skies then the next is totally can’t see right in front of my nose situation. The National Meteorological Center has warned that moderate to intense levels are to be experienced for the next few days till Sunday according to China Daily.

Next week, a second round of smog is scheduled around October 28. This is one of those times when the predication made turns out to be false. During these periods visibility is expected to fall between 2-6km. October has already had four hazardous levels of smoggy weather, which are not usually expected till later on in Winter. The reason for this is that Beijing has experienced a lower wind speed that would normally help clear away the smog.

This smog sent jitters to the central government when a directive was issued that local public schools and non-essential governments to be closed during the APEC summit in November in hopes that the smog levels will be bearable. Here is the full story.

Photos: Kentaro IEMOTO@Tokyo (Flickr)