Over the 1600 years since Creation, the world population of mankind increased rapidly. So did the violence from sinfulness. Eventually God had enough of it.

Genesis 6:5-8
The Lord saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. So the Lord said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth -- men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air -- for I am grieved that I have made them." But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. NIV
When the Lord saw how wicked everyone on earth was and how evil their thoughts were all the time, he was sorry that he had ever made them and put them on the earth. He was so filled with regret that he said, "I will wipe out these people I have created, and also the animals and the birds, because I am sorry that I made any of them." But the Lord was pleased with Noah. TEV

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A righteous man, Noah, was instructed to build a huge boat (about 140 x 23 x 13.5 meters, like a large ocean liner or freighter). He was instructed to take his family (wife, 3 sons, their wives, for a total of 8 people) into the boat. He was also told to take onboard representatives of all land-dwelling and air-breathing animals. (Animals at home in the water were not needed on the boat.)

Genesis 7:11-16
In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, on the seventeenth day of the second month -- on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights. On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark. They had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that moves along the ground according to its kind and every bird according to its kind, everything with wings. Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark. The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord shut him in. NIV
When Noah was six hundred years old, on the seventeenth day of the second month all the outlets of the vast body of water beneath the earth burst open, all the floodgates of the sky were opened, and rain fell on the earth for forty days and nights. On that same day Noah and his wife went into the boat with their three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their wives. With them went every kind of animal, domestic and wild, large and small, and every kind of bird. A male and a female of each kind of living being went into the boat with Noah, as God had commanded. Then the Lord shut the door behind Noah.

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In the above Chinese quotes are two character versions for the large boat or ship.
The NIV version uses (zhou / boat, ship), confirmed by the dictionary version with no alternative to distinguish between Traditional and Simplified.
Another word for boat combines the character with the (kou / mouth, meaning people) and another character in the upper right. But that upper right character has changed over time.
The TEV version uses (chuan / big boat, ship) while the dictionary uses as its only version.
In her first book, Dr. Nelson shows two ancient oracle bone versions, and . Dr. Chan's early version is . Dr. Nelson has two intermediate versions of the Traditional character, and .

So the upper right character has slowly changed from specific (ba / eight) to the more general Simplified (ji / few, some, several), where the Traditional "few" is the more complicated .

It is very significant that the original version has character components for 8 people. Dr. Chan summarizes, 'So the implied meaning of this character is "eight people in a boat." When the ancient Chinese wanted to come up with a character to represent a big boat, they thought of the biggest boat that existed up to that time -- and that was the boat that held eight people and pairs of all the animals. This correlates precisely with the biblical story of Noah: Noah, his wife, their three sons with their wives were the eight people who survived the worldwide deluge by taking refuge in the enormous ark that Noah built, in obedience to God's commandments and warning (Genesis 6:18, 7:7).'

Genesis 7:22-23
Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died. Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; men and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds of the air were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark. The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days. NIV
Everything on earth that breathed died. The Lord destroyed all living beings on the earth -- human beings, animals, and birds. The only ones left were Noah and those who were with him in the boat. The water did not start going down for a hundred and fifty days. TEV

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All continental and island areas were indeed covered by ocean water at least once. The bottom (oldest) sedimentary layers (Paleozoic and Mesozoic) have predominantly marine (ocean) fossils and their "formations" are generally continental in size. The upper sediments (Mesozoic, Cenozoic) are smaller in extent and have more terrestrial sediments as the ocean waters drained from the continents. The animal and human survivors on the big boat then repopulated the drastically changed world. There were new mountains, rivers, lakes, plains, and an Ice Age after the global Flood. Flood legends (many greatly distorted) abound among various people groups around the world, preserving the memory of this drastic event. The Chinese also have a widespread flood story, but it appears to be after the global Flood. It is their character for boat that preserves the story of 8 people on the big boat.