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Everything seems cool when it starts to rain. But when it rains nonstop for 24 hours, things get a bit different.

Here’s a look at our nation’s capital in rain. It sure is refreshing, but remember this has gone a bit too far. Beijing was soaked in rain for 24 hours straight (and counting), with rainstorm-level downpours in the suburbs away from the city center.

The rain seemed pretty refreshing, indeed, but it also wrecked havoc for the traffic. Travel delays were common as taxis, full of people in them, were all the rage. You had to get moving without being soaked, and being on four motorized wheels was the only way out. Traffic jams, once again, were not out of the ordinary.

The Beijing Subway, too, was hit, although this time, it wasn’t a case of soaked-in trouble; nope, it was more a technical glitch. Line 2’s new control center was a bit too new (they shifted control of the inner loop line to a new centralized facility), so tech glitches held up clockwise traffic on Line 2. It, in fact, started right when yours truly hopped into Hepingmen subway station, taking a train further west (clockwise) to Xuanwumen and points beyond. (We’re talking about the part of Beijing that’s just south of Chang’an Avenue!)

11:04. The train rolled in Hepingmen station. The doors opened — and stayed open. About 4 to 5 minutes later, a counterclockwise train rolled in. Doors opened. Three sharp beeps. Doors closed. Train drives off. Our train: “mouth” (door) still wide open.

It took about another 4 to 5 minutes for the second counterclockwise train to roll in. This time, I made up my mind. I switched on over immediately to the train going the wrong way around — changing, in the process, my plans for lunch so that I’d do pizza instead of Yoshinoya veggie rice bowls.

The chaos went on for a full 30 minutes on the clockwise part of Line 2. Thank heavens I escaped onto Line 5, where I got my pizza.

And that was the thing. When I went out of the pizza restaurant (after being stuffed chock-full of delicious pizza), the rain stopped. Out went an instant tweet. The rain stopped.

The rain. Yes, indeed. Not just “natural” rain. “Artificial” rain, too. In a city where the whole of the winter was nearly all dry, this bit of precipitation was more than welcome.