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Mimi Lau

More than half a million people were forced to leave their homes in the mainland's eastern coastal cities yesterday as the region braced itself for the onslaught of Typhoon Muifa.
Muifa was initially expected to make landfall near Shanghai, but a revised forecast predicted it would hit the coast today in Shandong .
Shanghai began mass evacuations yesterday, moving nearly 200,000 people to safety, while the authorities in Zhejiang  province moved more than 236,000, Xinhua reported. 
Another 80,400 were moved in southern Fujian  province.
China Southern Airlines,  China Eastern Airlines and Shanghai Airlines cancelled about 300 flights into and from eastern China today. 
Keen to avoid another disaster, railway authorities said high-speed trains between eastern seaboard cities would be cancelled if Muifa's winds topped 89km/h. 
The authorities blamed a lightning strike for signal problems that led to a deadly train crash in Wenzhou  two weeks ago.
Last night Zhejiang authorities were working to contact and rescue about 200 people on board 14 Shandong-based fishing boats battered by the storm near Dayushan waters, China National Radio reported. 
Zhejiang recalled 30,700 vessels while Fujian ordered 28,006 fishing boats back to harbour. 
At one point, the central government issued a red alert, the highest, for waves, with crests of up to 11 metres on the open sea and up to seven metres in coastal areas. 
Some mainland media had suggested that China's first aircraft carrier, the Varyag, was due to take its maiden sail yesterday, and online chatrooms were buzzing with speculation that the trip was delayed due to Typhoon Muifa. 
Muifa weakened from a strong typhoon to a typhoon by yesterday afternoon but the authorities warned it was still capable of causing severe damage. 
Xinhua said yesterday that Muifa would also pose threats to large bridges along the eastern coast, including the 36-kilometre Hangzhou Bay Bridge.
The authorities also released water from reservoirs near the coast to prevent to prevent overflow or dyke burst.
Muifa is expected to affect waters off Jiangsu, Shandong, Hebei  and Liaoning  provinces in the coming 36 hours.
1.3b yuan
The amount of damage (HK$1.57 billion) caused by the previous worst typhoon to hit Shanghai, Typhoon Matsa, in which seven died in 2005.




500,000 people flee onslaught of Typhoon Muifa