BEIJING (Reuters) -The southern Chinese city of Sanya, renowned for seafront resorts and sandy beaches, closed tourist attractions, shuttered businesses and suspended public transport on Sunday as it braced for an intensifying Typhoon Kajiki.
The tropical cyclone was about 200 km (124 miles) southeast of Sanya on the island province of Hainan at 9 a.m. (0100 GMT), packing maximum sustained wind of 38 metres (125 feet) a second near its centre, the National Meteorological Center said.
Kajiki is likely to strengthen as it moves northwest at approximately 20 km/h, with a peak wind speed as fast as 48 m/s, the state weather forecaster said.
The storm could make landfall along the southern coast of Hainan from Sunday afternoon to evening, or skirt the southern coastline before heading toward Vietnam in the west.
The Meteorological Center forecast heavy rainfall and strong wind in Hainan and the nearby provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi, with areas in Hainan set to receive as much as 400 mm of precipitation.
Sanya issued a red typhoon alert on Sunday morning – the highest in China’s colour-coded warning system – and raised its emergency response to the most severe level, showed posts on the local government’s Wechat account.
City officials convened a meeting on Saturday evening, urging preparation for “worst case scenarios” and stressing the need for heightened vigilance to ensure no fatalities and minimal injuries, the government said.
All classes and construction are suspended, and shopping centres, restaurants and supermarkets are closed from Sunday. Vessels have been ordered to cease operating in Sanya’s waters.
Officials said the lifting of restrictions would depend on the storm’s impact.
Sanya is one of China’s most popular holiday destinations, attracting 34 million tourist visits in 2024, state news agency Xinhua reported.
Since July, record rainfall has lashed China’s north and south in what meteorologists described as extreme weather events linked to climate change, testing local government readiness and posing significant risk to lives and the economy.
Natural disasters including flooding and drought caused 52.15 billion yuan ($7.28 billion) in direct economic loss in July, affecting millions of people and leaving 295 dead or missing, showed data from the Ministry of Emergency Management.
($1 = 7.1651 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Ethan Wang and Ryan Woo; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
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