Fierce winds and downpours from Typhoon Vicente have hit coastal regions in south China as the eighth typhoon this year is moving northwestward at a speed of around 20 km per hour.

It is expected to make landfall over the coast of Shenzhen and Zhanjiang in Guangdong Monday evening and Tuesday morning, the National Meteorological Center (NMC) said Monday.

At 3 p.m. Monday, Vicente was located 320 km southeast of Yangjiang city of Guangdong with the wind speed of 117 kilometers per hour near its center, according to the provincial meteorological center of Guangdong.

The NMC has issued an orange alert for Typhoon Vicente, the second highest warning level in China's four-tier color-coded typhoon warning system.8 Heavy rains and thunderstorms started to hit Hainan and Guangdong provinces, as well as the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, on Monday morning. Central and eastern Guangdong were whipped by strong gales of 80 kilometers per hour.

Powerful rainstorms are expected to hit Guangdong and Hainan between Monday and Wednesday and winds of up to 100 km per hour may sweep through the coastal areas.

The NMC warned that parts of Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan will see rainfall of 200 to 350 millimeters.

As of 7 p.m. Monday, nine flights had been canceled at Zhuhai airport in Guangdong due to the Vicente's impact, said Yu Kaiqiang, publicity official of Zhugang airport management company which is responsible for the daily operation of the airport.

Train services between Beijing and Hainan's city of Sanya, as well as services between the province's city of Haikou and the cities of Shanghai, Changsha, Xi'an and Chengdu have been rescheduled.

More than 33,500 fishing boats have been alerted to return to harbor with 10,560 fishermen taking shelter ashore in Guangdong.

On Monday, National Maritime Forecast Station upgraded the warnings of its sea waves and alert and its storm surges alert to orange and yellow respectively, as Typhoon Vicente approaches.

The northern part of the South China Sea will have waves as high as five to seven meters from Monday noon to Tuesday noon, the station said.

Seas off the coast of Guangdong, Fujian and Hainan provinces are expected witness waves of three to five meters high, according to the station's forecast.

The forecast also upgraded warning of storm surge to yellow at the coastal area of Guangdong, with a probable maximum surge at 70 to 130 centimeters.

It has warned local authorities and the public to take precautionary measures and intensify safety checks on fishing facilities.

The orange warning is the second-highest and the yellow warning second-lowest in China's four-level storm and wave warning system.

The Ministry of Agriculture issued an emergency order Monday, requesting the agricultural authorities in Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan and Yunnan and the fishery administrations of the South China Sea and East China Sea to keep a close eye on Vicente and implement timely measures to minimize potential losses.

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