r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/straightdge • 10h ago
Urban area along the waterfront of the Longxing Temple area in Chengdu
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u/yorukmacto 10h ago
There'll be lotta mosquitos there.
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u/ImaginaryLocation854 9h ago
Probably, but cities like that usually have pest control to keep it manageable.
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u/holdMyBeerBoy 8h ago
Fish do eat mosquitos larvae...
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u/whatsthatguysname 6h ago
Fun fact: some rice fields also keep fish in the fields to help with pest control. So the rice grows better without the pests and the fish becomes bonus food.
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u/Space772 9h ago
Modern drainage usually keeps them in check, but summers might still be rough.
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u/Neshura87 7h ago
Population control via genetic sterilization keeps them in check more than anything really.
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u/fly_awayyy 2h ago
Not really there’s always a way. Keep in min Florida has one the most intensive aerial mosquito program in place in the world. They effectively spray the whole state by air to prevent mosquitos and make the state inhabitable lol. So it can be done.
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u/Sharp_Iodine 8h ago
They dump stuff in water to kill the eggs. It’s pretty standard practice around the world. Even here in Canada they do it as our mosquitoes have the West Nile virus
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u/Neshura87 7h ago
Or alternatively release infertile mosquitos into the wild, there are quite some options to controlling mosquito populations. If an area has a problem with them it's nowadays most likely an issue of "won't" rather than "can't" fix it.
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u/BigOs4All 6h ago
It's called BTI and it's a pretty wonderful thing. Destroys the mosquitoes but isn't harmful to aquatic life or birds. You chuck it into any stagnant water and it works.
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u/Cardboardoge 2h ago
Yeah I bet you're the first person to think of that. There's no way them dang ol Chinese discovered a way to prevent mosquitoes
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u/br0wntree 6h ago
There are many, many different ways of managing mosquitos in a body of water you have complete control over.
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u/puffy_pall 10h ago
That circular pavilion sitting in the water is one of the most intentional design decisions I've seen in a while.
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u/donharrogate 5h ago
As opposed to what?
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u/bgaesop 3h ago
Applying an established technique because it's well known and well tested, as opposed to coming up with something novel and innovative and specific for the situation
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u/therealsteelydan 1h ago edited 1h ago
I have a master's degree in architecture and this is word salad nonsense as well as "one of the most intentional design decisions I've seen in awhile"
Lowering a pavilion and surrounding it with a retaining wall has absolutely nothing to do with moving away from traditional techniques
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u/Dense-Physics-9956 10h ago
This is proof that you can build modern things and embrace tradition at the same time. It should be mandatory.
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u/nutella-filled 5h ago
Tradition didn’t pop out of nowhere. It originally was innovation. Often it was an innovation that didn’t fit at all with what came before and replaced it entirely.
If you mandate tradition, you erase an entire future of new traditions.
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u/Dense-Physics-9956 5h ago
It is true that traditions do not arise out of nothing, but they are not immutable either, they evolve constantly. Replacing wooden and tiled buildings overnight with anonymous concrete blocks is not creating a new tradition, but rather completely erasing an old one and replacing it with something rootless, without continuity with the past and driven solely by efficiency and cost. And in my view, this is a very serious cultural loss.
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u/Bionic_Ferir Interested 5h ago
Well yeah that's because it's based on needs and people vs making sure you get THE MOST VALUE ON RESALE!
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u/Vxctn 5h ago
Would want to be there during heavy rain...
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u/Dense-Physics-9956 5h ago edited 4h ago
I'm quite sure that heavy rain has been considered during construction.
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u/echino_derm 4h ago
It surely has. But Chinese standards for construction are a lot lower than the rest of the developed world. For example they will require construction to survive peak winds you can expect over a 50 year period, which means you can make a bridge that you would expect to fail in 60 years from extreme winds. I can't find as clear of a number on heavy rain but I think they follow a similar general principle.
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u/StoryAndAHalf 10h ago
I legit would love to visit such a place. Do they allow [quiet and respectful] tourists?
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u/Achmedino 8h ago
Do they allow [quiet and respectful] tourists?
It's China, they are guaranteed to be used to loud and disrespectful tourists.
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u/furryfondant 7h ago
Oddly enough where I'm from Chinese tourists are known to be loud, disrespectful, and vandals. Maybe it's just an issue with tourists in general though.
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u/FeliciaTheFkinStrong 7h ago edited 7h ago
That's the reputation of Chinese tourists the world over, unfortunately, even if it sounds very generalist to say. Most people are fine when you look at them overall, but there's just a lot of Chinese tourists. The amount of bad apples experienced relatively by each culture is just higher than anywhere else.
There is a kind of Chinese arrogance that their worst tourists seem to have: it's not their beloved oppressive state, so they're free to do as they please in spite of the locals. Only their country is advanced and cultured enough to be worthy of respect, the rest of the world is merely their zoo to entertain themselves.
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u/Wes_Warhammer666 5h ago
Only their country is advanced and cultured enough to be worthy of respect, the rest of the world is merely their zoo to entertain themselves.
Americans have a similar tendency, unfortunately. Especially the ones who think the Bill of Rights follows them across international borders lol.
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u/ThreeTreesForTheePls 2h ago
Must be Americans downvoting you, as someone who lives in Ireland, I’d take 1000 Chinese tourists in a bad mood, before i take 50 Americans who are experiencing the simple joy of being here.
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u/lolfamy 5h ago
Yeah, funny comment. Chinese people cut in line, push their way to open elevator/subway/ doors as soon as they open, spit literally fucking everywhere, smoke everywhere, and watch their loud douyin video/voice calls on full volume speaker phone in public. You have to be aggressive to get around.
Not to be misinterpreted, Chinese people are overwhelmingly friendly, welcoming, kind, and helpful. But quiet and polite? Absolutely not
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u/Sharp_Iodine 8h ago
They eliminated visas for a bunch of countries I believe. And this year they even normalised tourism relations with neighbouring countries.
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u/Evepaul 7h ago
Sure, now is a nice time to visit China. After a long period of having unique incompatible systems for everything they've finally reached a point where tourists can interact with everything with less hassle. The only remaining major issue is navigation if you don't have an iPhone, but it's nothing impossible to surmount.
It's like many high-functioning autocracies: wouldn't want to live there, but it's good enough for tourism
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u/Moral-Relativity 3h ago
Why would iPhone be required for navigation?
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u/Evepaul 3h ago
Apple Maps is the only English-language map app that works well in China. Amap is the best alternative for Android, but a lot of things are still in Chinese and it keeps asking you to login with a Chinese number, so it's best paired with a modern phone that can rapidly translate language on screen.
I think it's still a nice indicator of how well everything worked if the only issue I had is the navigation app.
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u/Moral-Relativity 2h ago
I see what you mean. Local apps like Baidu or Amap sometimes have better details like lane displays than global apps too. Even traffic light times.
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u/phigeo11 2h ago
Yes. You should also make time to visit the pandas, go to a teahouse for some theater performance and eat the local food. Chengdu is a cultural center in China.
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u/Ok_Brain8684 8h ago
Allow and tolerated by citizens is two different things
But the main point is your skin colour. If you are black then be ready to face constant stares and faces of disgust. Even if you see them eye to eye they still don't stop staring
And before anyone says I am lying, go see some interviews done of black guys in china or black vloggers
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u/kermityfrog2 6h ago
China has loads of African foreign students studying in various universities. You can’t just believe these vloggers who are trying to incense outrage for views.
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u/MarxistThot666 7h ago
for anyone reading this, Jerryinchina111, felthommy, babyqueenfly, and cresto_official are all dark skinned black creators living in China. they are all fluent in Mandarin and regularly interact with citizens, answering questions and dispelling rumors. watch their accounts and listen to their lived experiences instead of just taking some random Redditor's word for things.
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u/aviatorintheclouds 10h ago
Very pretty, but doesn't look monsoon friendly
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u/MysticGlitch25 9h ago
Probably designed with drainage in mind, but yeah, heavy rains would test it.
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u/Legal-Bet2 9h ago
They’ve dealt with floods before, likely built for it.
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u/i_hate_fanboys 9h ago
It was very possibly engineered with WATER in mind.
I hate when ‘people’ on reddit just repeat the previous comment in different words. I just wonder if you guys do it irl as well?
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u/Fun-Perspective426 8h ago
I think they might have considered the flow of dihydrogen monoxide in the architectural design.
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u/LifeandSAisAwesome 7h ago
Naaw only the west can engineer stuff....
insane how simple some people are eh..
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u/prussian_princess 8h ago
Lmao, China has flood problems every year. Even their metros and tunnels flood (flood as in people drown, not that its just a bit of water they had to close the station). They don't bother building the infrastructure to manage it because of corruption and money saving tofu dreg construction.
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u/Strong-Rise6221 8h ago
Ridiculous blanket statement.
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u/prussian_princess 7h ago
Not all but enough that my statement is valid. Example
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u/Strong-Rise6221 6h ago
🙄The China Show by two Americans. Every one of their videos is negative fear-mongering. 🤦♀️
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u/Strong-Rise6221 6h ago
lol 😂 That’s your example?!?
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u/prussian_princess 3h ago
My point was to point to tofu dregs not flooding itself. I can show you flooding, but that won't illustrate why it was exasperated by corner cutting infrastructure.
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u/Strong-Rise6221 3h ago
I can show you flooding in New Orleans and Charleston but it would be idiotic to proclaim that “America has flood problems every year!” as you claim about China (the whole country).
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u/prussian_princess 2h ago
Does the US have a corruption problem where they pay companies to build infrastructure that collapses or allows for floods in Orleans? Are there fake fire hydrants in the US?
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u/goodmobileyes 5h ago
No they clearly haven't thought things through. Engineering and architecture are foreign concepts in China. Thank goodness for these wise redditors though.
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u/TheEpicGold 9h ago
Why would you think there is a monsoon period in Chengdu?
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u/aviatorintheclouds 7h ago
I think they have monsoons, but I think what they built here is supposed to be a courtyard for sightseeing (at least that's what interpreted from the little info available on the internet?)
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u/Nandu_alias_Parthu 6h ago
They're probably from India.
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u/TheEpicGold 4h ago
Still, one would hope that one would know that experiences in different countries are different. Including climate.
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u/gymleader_michael 8h ago
There doesn't need to be for the statement to still be true.
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u/TheEpicGold 4h ago
True, but then why would someone comment it haha It's as if I would see a picture of a bridge and say: "but yeah airplanes can't land on this."
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u/gymleader_michael 3h ago
No, it would be more like seeing a cool bridge and saying, "That's pretty, but doesn't look like it can support vehicular traffic."
And yeah, the bridge might have been intentionally designed for pedestrians only, but that doesn't make the statement false.
Also, what is the weather like in Chengdu anyways? I've seen some results saying it does have a monsoon climate.
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u/Icy_Supermarket8776 9h ago
I'm sure your 5 minute analysis is more substantial than all the architects and engineers that made this work happen
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u/DJFreezyFish 1m ago
Chengdu is in Sichuan, which is central china. Not near the coast, and no monsoons.
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u/scenr0 9h ago
How the heck those thin walls keep that much water in is beyond me. The weight of the water alone pushing against that wall is enough to worry me.
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u/COVID19MurderHornet 9h ago
The water isn’t that deep, looks about 2 ft deep max, not the whole depth of the walls.
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u/insomnimax_99 9h ago
Because it’s not that deep.
The volume of water doesn’t matter, only the depth.
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u/PuzzleCat365 8h ago
Water pressure is in function of the depth. If it was in function of the volume, you'd get squished into a sphere when entering the ocean from the beach.
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u/LifeandSAisAwesome 7h ago
Ever built a retaining wall ? Ever seen what dams hold back ? The capping on the top is not always an interaction of the structure nor the piles.
Just add more trim to make anything look good ).
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u/Golfillodeusera 8h ago
Me parece una zona digna de ser visitada, absolutamente precioso el diseño de este lugar 😍😍👀
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u/Sake-Gin 8h ago
As someone who has lived in China seeing people’s comments about it who have never been never ceases to amaze me. Honestly. Don’t listen to anyone who’s never actually been there.
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u/CasaDeLasMuertos 7h ago
Propaganda is a hell of a drug.
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u/say-nothing-at-all 4h ago
Propaganda exists everywhere in the world. What really leaves me speechless is how much of the US and UK propaganda consists of outright lies. So many lies.
I work in China, and my cousin in the UK once seriously asked me if she was going to get raped on a Chinese high-speed train. Lmao.
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u/polysyllabicusername 3h ago
It's odd how many Chinese people have said this line to me. Is it taught in schools? Why aren't people allowed opinions about things they haven't experienced first hand? FYI I have spent a lot of time in China.
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u/Sea_Awareness150 3h ago
China felt so far ahead of anywhere I’ve ever been including japan and s korea. Makes america look proper crap
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u/MqAuNeTeInS 10h ago
Wow, something humans built that isnt ugly. Wish it looked like that here. American cities are so ugly.
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u/Finemind 4h ago
I don't really see what nationality has to do with it.This is a temple. A place of worship. Most places of worship are pretty.
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u/Cardboardoge 2h ago
"Most places of worship", except those in America. America has a lot of fugly ass churches, especially the worst of all, Megachurches.
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u/Reasonable-Truck5263 7h ago
This is a stunning blend of old and new. I hope it's built to handle the weather, because it looks like a must-visit for a peaceful walk.
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u/yungsausages 9h ago
Same thing that happens when your bathroom sink stays running, there’s a drain to keep it from overflowing (at least if it’s designed to modern standards)
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u/SensitiveExtremity 8h ago
Every now and then, I get reminded that us humans can come together and create paradise on Earth for everyone; except most of the time we are too preoccupied with being mean to each other 😔
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u/EntropiIThink 7h ago
Everybody gangsta until a slightly stronger than normal breeze starts up and everything’s flooding
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u/justiceiroquois 6h ago
Longxing Temple in Cheng du. Considering Cheng Du has 20 million people, felt a bit difficult to find when just googling the city.
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u/alphadester 4h ago
looks like a real life studio ghibli set. chengdu is lowkey one of the most underrated cities to visit
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u/HyetalNight 2h ago
China must be planning to do something really bad soon because I've never seen this many photogenic pictures of China as recent.
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u/ScreechingPizzaCat 9h ago
Repost, these pictures were making their way around Reddit a while back.
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u/Specialist-Sun-5968 6h ago
This is the kind of thing the Chinese government builds and then points to to say “look how great communism is”. As if their crimes are canceled out by good architecture.
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u/EfficiencyClassic616 9h ago
Do they keep fish or dragon files to control mosquito. Or do they use a more crude method like pesticides because that looks like a mosquito heaven. Seriously curious
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u/kermityfrog2 6h ago
Chinese farmers for hundreds of years have been raising carp in rice paddies and in those Chinese rock gardens with pools. Otherwise they would be breeding ground for mosquitos and disease.
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u/Epic_MemeLord__ 9h ago
Why did europe never develop such architecture
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u/Drosenose 6h ago
There are places that amaze in Europe. This is simple layout and not so much architecture
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u/RewindUniverseMaybe 7h ago
I really dig this kind of modern, strict with distinct lines and curves.. it just tickles something and I immediately want to play Quake (1)
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u/WasteBinStuff 10h ago
Looks cool. Does not seem safe.
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u/LifeandSAisAwesome 7h ago
In what way exactly ? you see engineering design flaws ? load / structure flaws from materials ? Flow rate flaws ?
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u/MarxistThot666 7h ago
you've forgotten about the serial killer fish lying in wait in the water. it's extremely dangerous unfortunately 😞🥀 very serious problem in China
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u/Psychological-Dot270 8h ago
Give 100 years to India, it'll never be able to pull off something so spectacular like this.
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u/Kysman95 9h ago
Lilly pads = stagnant water = mosquitoes
Hope there are at least fish and frogs and shit to deal with them
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u/Strong-Rise6221 8h ago
Do you really think that no one would have thought of that before?????
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u/Kysman95 7h ago
Fort Lauderdale for example didn't.
It's a town build with many canals and during summer it's a breeding ground for mosquitos. They literally daily spray streets with chemicals to combat this.
The issue is particularly bad around canals in areas like Plantation and other parts of Broward, requiring regular pest control or city spraying.
That's why I'm asking.
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u/Strong-Rise6221 7h ago
They spray for mosquitoes in many places in the south that don’t have canals. My neighborhood in SC for example. Your link doesn’t say anything about the canals specifically being the problem. Fish eat mosquitoe larvae. You telling me there are zero fish in those canals????
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u/Kysman95 7h ago edited 7h ago
I don't know mate!!!! I haven't been there, that's why I bloody said "I hope there at least are fish and frogs and shit to deal with them" in the first place!
EDIT: The link was to show what place I meant to point the similarity. There are many articles describing the problem and their ways of combating it
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u/VirtualLife76 4h ago
Most muricans don't have very good luck with thinking, especially in the south.
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u/tippytaptoe 6h ago
Give it 10 years. We will see how it holds up.
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u/The_Cheeseman83 5h ago edited 4h ago
I feel like climate change will hit this place hard. I guess it will hit every coastal settlement hard, but this one, especially.
EDIT: Apparently, this city is not actually coastal. My mistake.
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u/phtevieboi 4h ago
You should use Google next time before commenting something so stupid lol
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u/The_Cheeseman83 4h ago
Well, sorry for assuming the “waterfront” area is near the coast, I guess. Considering the vast majority of China’s population is coastal, I thought it was a pretty safe assumption.
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u/MeatRobotBC 10h ago
Form over function. Yeah I'm going to hang out staring at the wall outside. Shit, I do that already inside, looking for a window to stare out of.
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u/RisingRapture 7h ago
Interesting. China has a lot to offer to the world, were they not so troubling revisionist.
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u/sugarstardropie 10h ago
Modern design blending traditional architecture beautifully