People visit the Garden Expo Park during a lantern show as part of celebrations marking the Mid-Autumn Festival in Beijing on Saturday, September 14, 2024. - AFP
BEIJING (Bloomberg): Chinese authorities said typhoon Bebinca is expected to hit the east coast as early as Sunday night and may pose a major public safety risk as tens of millions of holidaymakers take trips across the country for the mid-autumn festival.
The typhoon is expected to bring significant rainfall when it lands in the east coast of China, the Ministry of Emergency Management said in a statement posted on its website on Saturday.
This coincides with a three-day festival holiday starting Sunday, and any severe weather is likely to disrupt travel and logistics.
China’s railway operator said passenger traffic may reach 74 million for the mid-autumn festival, Xinhua News Agency reported. If travel gets disrupted, it could further dampen consumption in the world’s second largest economy.
Bebinca, which China refers to as Beibijia, is likely to make landfall between the coastal areas of Taizhou in Zhejiang province and Qidong in Jiangsu province. The China Meteorological Administration issued the second-highest emergency response alert.
The Meishan container terminal in Ningbo-Zhoushan port in Zhejiang will suspend most of its operations from 8 p.m. local time on Saturday, according to a statement posted on an official WeChat account. Yangshan port near Shanghai will also halt container business starting from 12 a.m. on Sunday.
The typhoon’s trajectory could bring it to the Shanghai area. Passenger shipping lines are scheduled to be suspended from Sunday, according to a statement posted on the Shanghai Municipal Port & Shipping Development Center’s WeChat account on Friday.
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