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Another example of "room for improvement" in the facade...

In 2005, there was a massive toxic spill into the river at Harbin (just 4m people live there)... It killed everything in the river for 100's of miles.

It went of for months without "Katrina like news hystronics" or not a single Algore concert.

Here's a interesting response by locals as they try to recover the river.

"Chinese efforts to restock a polluted northern river with fish ran into problems when more than 1,000 residents started hauling them out almost as soon as they were put in, state media said.

More than 3,000 workers from fishery departments of northeast China's Jilin and Liaoning provinces released 13 truckloads of carp fry into the Songhua River "in the hope of improving its ecology", Xinhua news agency said.

"Shortly after the release was completed, more than 1,000 residents in Jilin swarmed to the riverbank with nets and other fishing equipment," Xinhua said.

A dozen fishery workers patrolling the river confiscated poachers' nets but no arrests were made.

Many of China's lakes and rivers are threatened by run-off from fertilisers, dumped industrial waste and untreated sewage. Algae blooms can burst out in water rich in nutrients from farm and domestic run-off.

Millions of residents of the city of Harbin had their taps turned off for weeks after a toxic spill in the Songhua River in 2005."