北京做為明帝國的首都，在設計上原有寬而深的溝渠，每年陰曆二、三月也定期淘挖，且派遣官員管理與巡視。除此之外，官方也常不定期修理與疏濬溝渠。但15世紀中葉以後，由於城市人口增長，權貴占溝蓋屋的問題越來越嚴重。政府雖一再重申禁令，但直至17世紀上半葉，有權勢者依然違規侵占溝渠，而此成為溝渠無法清理的根源。另一方面，官方自1437年起，曾大規模疏濬北京的護城河。即使如此，還是時常淤積，最後一次疏濬護城河，則是在1639年。值得注意的是，明代人與宋朝人一樣，都注意到排水不暢與瘟疫流行之間的關係。

Being the capital of the Ming Empire, Beijing was designed with wide and deep dykes. They were regularly dredged during the second and third months of the lunar calendar each year. Court officials were dispatched to manage and oversee the process, though they also often irregularly repaired and dredged the dykes. However, owing to a increase in the city's population from the middle of the fifteenth century, the matter of local dignities building houses above the dykes became an increasingly serious issue. Although this was repeatedly prohibited by the court, those with power would still violate the law by building on the dykes until the middle of the seventeenth century, and this became the reason why the dykes could not be dredged. In relation to this, the court used to extensively dredge Beijing's moats from 1437, but, despite this, the moats often became blocked with silt and the last time they were dredged was in 1639. What is worth noting is that, like their predecessors from the Song dynasty, the subjects of the Ming dynasty also noticed the relationship between inadequate drainage and the spread of epidemics.