PHOTOS: Typhoon Linfa spares Hong Kong, wreaks havoc for thousands in Guangdong

Typhoon Linfa hit the Southeast China coast yesterday in Guangdong province. Linfa had been forecast to make a near-direct hit on Hong Kong but the SAR escaped the worst of the storm, which instead made landfall in Lufeng, a city in the Shanwei municipal region.

Fearing the worst, Hong Kong Observatory had raised the typhoon signal to No.8 for the first time this year and shut down several public services. The city rescheduled hundreds of flights and closed kindergartens along with tourist attractions and the city’s container port, according to the South China Morning Post. Linfa brought strong winds to Hong Kong, but the worst impact of the storm was apparently public transport chaos as residents flocked home from work early.

Strong winds were the worst Hong Kong suffered as Typhoon Linfa blew past the city. (Image: SCMP)

Linfa’s real impact was felt on the mainland roughly 100 miles (160km) east of Hong Kong, where powerful winds and torrential rain caused chaos for hundreds of thousands.

In addition to knocking over trees and cars, the typhoon also took out the power supply to over 700,000 homes and caused heavy flooding in Jieyang.

Transportation woes plagued the entire region as Chaoshan International Airport canceled 53 flights, leaving 5,000 passengers stranded, and high-speed trains between Shenzhen and Xiamen, in neighboring Fujian province, were suspended, reports local media.

Although Linfa has weakened and been downgraded to a tropical storm, it will continue to bring heavy rain as it moves westward.

CCTV America, the US branch of China's main television news station, has a video report below, although for some reason, no one thought to teach the laowai anchor how to pronounce Zhejiang. She must have learned her Chinese from Fox News.

Farther up the coast, Shanghai, Zhejiang and Fujian are bracing themselves for the much bigger Typhoon Chan-hom, due to bring heavy rains and strong winds tonight and into the weekend.

Let's hope Chan-hom isn't as big as China's worst storm in recent history, Typhoon Nina, which killed 200,000 in 1975.