SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) – Shanghai suspended travel links, recalled ships and closed tourist attractions including the Shanghai Disney Resort on Sunday as it braced for Typhoon Bebinca, which could be the strongest typhoon to hit China's financial center since 1949. .
The Category 1 typhoon, packing sustained winds near its center of 144 kilometers per hour (89 miles per hour), was about 500 kilometers southeast of Shanghai as of 1:00 pm (0500 GMT). It is expected to make landfall on the east coast of China at midnight on Monday.
The most powerful typhoon to hit Shanghai in recent decades was Typhoon Gloria in 1949, which tore through the city with winds of 144 kph. Shanghai was last threatened with a direct hit in 2022 by super typhoon Muifa, which instead landed 300 kilometers away in Zhoushan city, Zhejiang province.
Shanghai often avoids the strong typhoons that have hit southern China, including Yagi, a devastating Category 4 typhoon that roared through Hainan province last week. But Shanghai and neighboring provinces are taking no chances with Phase 1 Bebinca.
Resorts in Shanghai, including Shanghai Disney Resort, Jinjiang Amusement Park and Shanghai Wild Animal Park, were temporarily closed while many ferries were grounded to and from Chongming Island – China's third largest island known as the “gateway to on the Yangtze River”.
More than 600 flights to and from Shanghai have also been canceled, according to local media.
In Zhejiang, ships have been recalled while several parks in the provincial capital Hangzhou have announced closures.
Bebinca's arrival will coincide with the Mid-Autumn Festival, a three-day holiday across the country when many Chinese travel or engage in outdoor activities.
China's Ministry of Water Resources on Saturday issued a Level-IV emergency response – the lowest level in China's four-tier emergency system – for possible flooding in Shanghai and the provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui.
