5,000 Students Stranded by Guangxi Floods Safely Return Home
More than 5,000 students who were stranded by catastrophic flooding in China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region have safely boarded trains at Guigang Railway Station to return home, following a massive multi-agency rescue operation. The evacuation marks a significant success story within a broader disaster that has claimed at least 39 lives and affected 375,000 people across the region.
The Flood Crisis
Typhoon Maysak, the 10th named storm of the 2026 Pacific typhoon season, made landfall in Guangxi on July 4, bringing persistent extreme rainfall. From July 5 to 7, cumulative rainfall reached 200–400mm in central and southern Guangxi, triggering severe flooding across 14 prefecture-level cities and 63 counties, according to CCTV News.
The situation escalated dramatically on July 6 when three reservoirs—Liulan, Yunbiao, and Liuwang—suffered critical failures. The Liulan Reservoir breach alone created an estimated 50-meter gap in the dam, which had been renovated from 2023 to June 2025 and touted as a “model project.” The breach ultimately caused 26 of the 39 confirmed deaths.
The Yujiang River in Guigang experienced its largest flood since 2001, peaking at 46.88 meters on July 7—5.68 meters above the warning level. Across Guangxi, 65 rivers exceeded warning thresholds at 82 monitoring stations.
The Student Rescue Operation
As floodwaters rose, multiple schools in Guigang’s western education park became isolated. At Guangxi Logistics Vocational College alone, more than 6,000 students were trapped by floodwaters reaching depths of up to 7 meters. The total number of stranded students and teachers across all affected schools reached approximately 30,000.
On July 8, a critical piece of equipment arrived: a power pontoon bridge—described as a “rescue aircraft carrier”—deployed by China Anneng Group, the national natural disaster engineering rescue force. Measuring 60 meters long with a capacity of over 500 people per trip and a 60-ton load capacity, the pontoon bridge began ferrying stranded students to dry ground. According to IT Home, this equipment had previously been used in the 2021 Henan floods and other major disasters.
By midday on July 9, the pontoon bridge had completed the transfer of over 6,000 stranded students and teachers. In total, approximately 30,000 students and teachers from multiple schools were successfully transferred and resettled.
The Railway Evacuation
Once on dry land, students were transported by bus to Guigang Railway Station. “Yesterday the station transferred 500 students, today that number has risen to over 5,000,” said Yu Yongjun, Guigang Station Chief, as reported by People’s Daily.
A teacher from Guangxi Logistics Vocational College described the scene: “The students had just been rescued, their phones were dead, and they wanted to get to the high-speed rail station as soon as possible to report safety to their families and take the train home.”
China Railway Nanning Bureau restored service on the Nanning-Zhuhai High-Speed Railway (Nanning-Yulin section) and the Li-Zhan Railway to facilitate the evacuation. Station staff implemented a “station-train joint control” mechanism, with platform attendants coordinating directly with train conductors to maximize passenger capacity on each service. Students departed for destinations including Guangzhou, Nanning, and Guilin.
Broader Impact and Questions
While the student rescue was a remarkable success, the broader disaster has been devastating. Official figures confirmed 39 deaths and 9 missing persons as of July 9, with 130,000 people urgently relocated. More than 8,300 rescue personnel were deployed, including national fire rescue teams, People’s Liberation Army troops, armed police, and China Anneng Group specialists.
The failure of recently renovated infrastructure—particularly the Liulan Reservoir—has raised serious questions. Sina Finance reported that the reservoir had been classified as a “problem reservoir” before its renovation, and reports emerged that a private company had won an aquaculture contract at the site, leading to speculation about whether economic interests may have delayed pre-flood water release.
What to Watch For
As rainfall in Guangxi begins to diminish, attention is turning to the long-term recovery. Key questions remain: Will there be investigations into the reservoir failures? How will the 130,000 displaced residents be resettled? And what infrastructure improvements will be implemented to prevent similar disasters in a region increasingly vulnerable to extreme weather events?