Flights and rail services resume across eastern China as Typhoon Bavi weakens
The storm, which brought major cities such as Shanghai and Hangzhou to a standstill, is still expected to bring torrential rain to many areas
As of 9pm on Sunday, the storm was over Chuzhou city in the central province of Anhui, according to the National Meteorological Centre. Bavi, which had been downgraded to a tropical storm earlier in the day, was slowly moving to the north at speeds of around 15km/h (9mph), the centre said.
The system is expected to veer northeast over Anhui province on Monday, cross the Shandong Peninsula into the northern waters of the Yellow Sea on Tuesday, and eventually transition into an extratropical cyclone.
The storm had earlier brought strong winds and heavy rains to large swathes of the east coast, prompting the evacuation of around 2.4 million people in the path of the storm and causing thousands of flights and rail services to be cancelled.
But as the conditions began to ease along the east coast, and some local authorities downgraded their weather warnings, services slowly began to return to normal. However, high winds and heavy rainfall were expected to continue across many parts of the country.
High-speed rail services along several major corridors connecting cities from Beijing to Hong Kong – as well as major eastern transport hubs such as Shanghai, Nanjing and Hangzhou – began a phased resumption on Sunday afternoon.