China Evacuates 1.8 Million Ahead of Typhoon (with Video)
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Shanghai's biggest city, closed schools, ferries and other transport links amid warnings of torrential rains and strong winds.
The storm hit land near Cangnan in southern Zhejiang province, some 250 miles south of Shanghai, and was losing force as it moved north along the coast, state media reported.
Authorities in Shanghai, Zhejiang and Fujian province ordered 2 million people evacuated from ships and coastal regions.
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There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage caused by the storm on mainland China.
On Tuesday, one worker was reported killed and another seriously injured as the fringe of the typhoon lashed Taiwan, knocking down scaffolding at a highway construction site in Taipei, Taiwan's Disaster Relief Center reported.
Photo: Millions Flee Wipha's Path
Shanghai on Tuesday closed schools and 1.8 million people were evacuated from coastal areas in the city and in low lying areas in Zhejiang and Jiangsu province just north of the city. Shanghai was considering closing Stock Exchange if "emergency measures" were necessary, China's official Xinhua News Agency reported.
Organizers of the women's World Cup, meanwhile, rescheduled Wednesday's Shanghai match between Norway and Ghana to Thursday and moved it to the neighboring city of Hangzhou.
A Wednesday game in Hangzhou between Brazil and Denmark was moved to Thursday.
Shanghai and the coastal provinces of Zhejiang and Fujian to the south issued typhoon warnings requiring all vessels to return to shore or change course to avoid the storm. Numerous flights out of Shanghai and other regional airports were canceled.
Wipha, a woman's name in Thai, was upgraded from a tropical storm Monday. With wind gusts of up to 165 mph, local meteorological officials said it would be the most destructive storm to hit the Shanghai area in years if it followed a course northward that would take it just west of the city.
The deadliest storm to hit the China coast in recent years was Typhoon Winnie in 1997, which killed 236 people