Tropical storm Nepartak was monitored 170 kilometers south of Sanya City on the southern tip of Hainan Island in southern China around 5 pm on Monday.

The Hainan Provincial Meteorological Observatory said there was a force 12 wind at the eye of the tropical storm.

According to weather forecast, the eye will continue to move northwestward at a speed of 15 kilometers per hour. It will pass by sea waters southwest of Hainan Island around Monday night and on Tuesday will enter Beibu Gulf and eventually land in Vietnam's northern coast.

Nepartak, the 20th typhoon this year, shaped in the western Pacific Ocean on Nov. 13.
 
(Xinhua News Agency November 18, 2003)