Chinese Woman Swallowed by Sudden Hole in the Sidewalk

You can spend your entire life dodging subway grates and manhole covers to prevent an accidental drop into the dark guts of the city. But there's nothing, absolutely nothing you can do to protect against sinkholes lurking below the most innocent-looking of sidewalks.

Two yelp-worthy plunges in China recently drove home the dangers of urban sinkholes. The first occurred in March to a woman strolling in Xi'an, the capital of Shaanxi Province in northwest China. A sidewalk opened up underneath her feet like a trapdoor to a gallows, pulling her 20 feet down into a water-filled abyss and knocking her unconsciousness. Firefighters eventually hauled her, crying, back into the world of light.