When a storm packs sustained winds hitting 45 meters per second, normal life stops immediately. That is the exact reality unfolding across China's eastern coast as Typhoon Dolphin bears down on major population hubs.
If you are trying to fly out of Shanghai or track cargo movements through Zhejiang, you already know the disruption is massive. Thousands of flights are grounded, hundreds of thousands of people are moving away from vulnerable zones, and local governments are treating this weather event with absolute severity.
The Scale of Transport Chaos
The aviation sector took the hardest hit first. Shanghai’s two primary air hubs—Pudong International and Hongqiao International—wiped out roughly 1,400 flights in a single day as conditions deteriorated. Nearby Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport axed hundreds of inbound and outbound routes to keep passengers safe.
It is not just planes staying on the tarmac. Regional transit networks are freezing up across the Yangtze River Delta.
- Railway halts: China Railway Shanghai Group suspended multiple high-speed and regional rail links starting Sunday, with reduced schedules expected to stretch for days.
- Maritime shutdowns: Ports near Shanghai, including Zhoushan, halted critical ship-fueling and cargo operations. Ferries across Zhejiang and Fujian provinces suspended hundreds of routes entirely.
- Airport closures: Facilities like Ningbo Lishe International Airport completely paused operations to ride out the worst of the weather.
Airlines like China Eastern, Air China, and China Southern are allowing passengers to change or cancel bookings without penalty, but getting a physical seat out of the danger zone before landfall became nearly impossible by Sunday afternoon.
Evacuations and Government Response
China's National Meteorological Centre issued a red typhoon alert, which is the absolute highest tier available in the country's warning system. Emergency tiers were aggressively upgraded across multiple cities. Wenzhou and Taizhou activated Level I responses, while Hangzhou sat firmly at Level II.
Local authorities aren't waiting for the storm surge to hit living rooms. In Fujian province, officials relocated nearly 99,000 residents from high-risk sectors ahead of time. Further north in Zhejiang, massive local movements cleared out hundreds of thousands of people from coastal pockets prone to extreme flooding.
Construction vessels were pulled back to ports, and offshore industrial projects halted work entirely days before the outer bands made landfall.
What Comes Next as Dolphin Moves Inland
Typhoon Dolphin didn't just appear overnight. The storm carved a destructive path through Japan's Okinawa prefecture earlier in the week, knocking out power to thousands of homes, triggering localized evacuations, and disrupting travel before tracking toward Taiwan.
Now positioned off the coast between Zhoushan and Fuding, the storm brings an extra hazard: torrential rainfall that forecasters predict will drop up to 400 millimeters of water in specific pockets. Mountainous and low-lying areas across Zhejiang, Fujian, Anhui, and Jiangsu face severe flash flood and landslide risks through Monday afternoon.
While the system is expected to lose some of its punch once it officially moves inland and tracks northwest, the residual hazards will linger. If you have travel booked through eastern China this week, check directly with your carrier before heading to any station or terminal, and follow local municipal emergency channels for immediate safety updates.
