After putting on an orange life jacket on Wednesday, I squished my feet across a muddy field, stepped on bags of cement, jumped on an inflatable boat and sailed off on a long journey over floodwaters at least 3 meters deep.

I was following a rescue team that was to evacuate trapped residents in a residential community in Zhuozhou, Hebei province — a county-level city that was still fighting inundation on Thursday after days of heavy rainfall.

Waves stirred by the boat were a muddy yellow. We could see nothing under the surface, but we knew we were sailing over streets.

Many unexpected objects were floating on the surface — a steam pot, advertising boards, boxes and buckets. They were from the many buildings along the street (now a river channel).

We passed companies, factories and residential communities, all partly immersed in water.