About 20 flights to and from Pudong International Airport in Shanghai were canceled or redirected to a nearby airport Thursday due to windy weather caused by the advancing Typhoon Ramasun.

A spokesman for the airport controller said the wind is getting stronger in Shanghai and a storm is expected Friday morning causing more flights to be rescheduled.

Qiang Weizhong, director of the operation center of the airport, said the center of the typhoon will be at a point 150 km from the airport by 2am Friday.

Flights to and from Hongqiao Airport in the western part of Shanghai were unchanged.

Shipping companies in Shanghai said about 10 domestic passenger services from Shanghai were canceled Thursday.

According to an emergency warning from China's Central Meteorological Station, the typhoon edging toward the east China coast has hit the provinces of Taiwan, Fujian, Zhejiang and Jiangsu, causing gales in the coastal areas of Fujian, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu.

Wind and rain are expected for Shanghai Friday, according to weather forecasts issued Thursday night by the local observatory.

(China Daily July 5, 2002)