Typhoon Tapah nears S China, forcing school closures, transport halts

Schools are closed, trains halted, ferries suspended and people evacuated as Typhoon Tapah approaches south China's Guangdong Province, where it is forecast to make landfall Monday morning.

The year's 16th typhoon is expected to make landfall along the coast between the cities of Jiangmen and Maoming in south China's Guangdong Province, unleashing torrential rain across the southern Pearl River Delta and western Guangdong through Tuesday, the provincial meteorological service said.

Cities including Jiangmen, Maoming and Zhuhai raised typhoon warnings and announced school closures. Railway authorities said all trains on the Shenzhen-Zhanjiang and Guangzhou-Maoming lines will be suspended on Monday, with services expected to be gradually resumed Tuesday.

Due to the suspension of the Guangdong-Hainan ferry service for cross-strait railway transportation, cross-sea trains to and from the island province of Hainan have also been canceled or rerouted.

In Yangjiang City alone, authorities said that by 9 a.m. Sunday, a total of 1,785 workers had been evacuated from 26 offshore wind power platforms, along with 2,026 people from fish farms and 342 from marine ranches. Twelve coastal tourist sites have also been shut down.

China's national observatory on Sunday renewed a yellow alert – the third-highest level in its four-tier weather warning system – for Typhoon Tapah. Meanwhile, China's Ministry of Water Resources also activated a Level-IV emergency flood control response in Guangdong and neighboring Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

China has a four-tier emergency response system for disaster relief, with Level IV being the lowest and Level I the highest.

(Cover: Typhoon Tapah is forecast to make landfall in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province, south China, September 7, 2025. /VCG)