Typhoon Bavi made landfall late Friday in the coastal city of Taizhou, Zhejiang province, bringing roughly 90-mph sustained winds and rain bands stretching the approximate width of France across eastern China, hours after authorities evacuated nearly two million people from four provinces and cities.
China's National Meteorological Center confirmed landfall at approximately 11:20 p.m. local time on July 11, Reuters reported. The storm hit as a Category 1 equivalent on the Saffir-Simpson scale, weaker than its earlier peak, but still carrying enough energy to threaten flooding and infrastructure damage across a densely populated stretch of China's coast.
The scale of the evacuation tells the real story. Chinese state media reported more than 1.7 million people moved out of Zhejiang province alone. Fujian province evacuated more than 100,000. Beijing, hundreds of miles inland, evacuated another 100,000. Shanghai relocated roughly 34,000. Combined, the figures approach 1.93 million.
Before reaching China, Bavi had already carved a destructive path. The typhoon pummeled Japan's southern Sakishima island chain in the Ryukyu Islands, though Japan had not reported any deaths as of publication. It then brushed past northern Taiwan without making landfall, but not without consequence.
Taiwan's fire department reported 113 people injured, most from falls off motorcycles or bicycles, or from being struck by debris. Taiwan's government evacuated more than 14,000 people, primarily from mountainous areas where forecasts warned of nearly three feet of rain. Almost every city and county across the island declared a typhoon holiday, shuttering offices and schools.
The aviation disruption was severe. Taoyuan International Airport, Taiwan's main gateway, effectively shut down, with 920 international flights cancelled. All 282 domestic flights across Taiwan were grounded. The island's north-south high-speed rail line kept running, but on reduced service.
Bavi's reach extended far south of its track. In the Philippines, 17 people died from heavy rains driven by an enhanced southwest monsoon that the typhoon worsened. Those deaths are a grim reminder that a storm's deadliest effects often land far from its eye. Earlier reporting on Bavi's approach had already documented fatal landslides in the Philippines as the storm bore down on the region.
In Wenzhou, the Chinese coastal city near Taizhou, residents braced with a mix of caution and stoicism. Huang Xinghuan, a 50-year-old local, was out buying groceries at a traditional wet market before it closed ahead of the storm. His family had stocked two to three days' worth of water.
"I'm a little worried, but I think it'll be OK. We've been through typhoons before. We'll get through it."
Huang added that he saw no reason for panic buying. "I think supplies are well guaranteed now. There's no need to panic or stockpile a lot of food or other supplies," he said.
Chen Qiuqin, a Wenzhou resident in her 60s, walked through steady rain on her way to her elderly parents' home. Her concern was practical and personal.
"I was worried about the flowerpots on my mother's balcony, so I'm going to help move them inside. My parents are both elderly and they're home alone, so I wasn't at ease."
Chen said she was not overly worried, citing the government's preparations. But for families with aging relatives, a typhoon is never routine.
Bavi had already demonstrated its destructive potential well before reaching the Chinese coast. The storm made a historic Category 5 landfall on the U.S. island of Rota earlier in its life cycle, one of only six such strikes on American soil.
In Taipei, some residents shrugged off the storm entirely. Yeh Mao-hsiung, a 68-year-old, took his dog for a morning walk in downtown Taipei despite blustery wind and rain.
"It's OK, it's not that serious. It's just a little bit more wind."
Not everyone shared that calm. In Taipei's Beitou neighborhood, nestled in the foothills, gusts of approximately 100 kilometers per hour knocked down trees and swelled rivers. Some restaurants and convenience stores in the capital stayed open, but the island was largely shut down.
The broader context of this typhoon season has already tested Pacific communities. Bavi hammered U.S. Pacific territories before turning toward East Asia, and forecasters had flagged El Niño conditions as a driver of the storm's unusual intensity.
Several questions hung over the story at the time of Bavi's China landfall. Chinese state media had not yet reported whether any deaths occurred in the mainland. Japan reported no fatalities but had not addressed injuries. The storm's exact intensity before it began weakening on approach to China was also unclear from official statements.
The itemized evacuation figures from state media, 1.7 million from Zhejiang, 100,000-plus each from Fujian and Beijing, and 34,000 from Shanghai, add up to roughly 1.93 million, broadly consistent with the "nearly 2 million" figure reported in the headline. But the sourcing chain for that round number was not specified.
Other Pacific island communities have faced similar storms this season. Super Typhoon Sinlaku battered Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands with catastrophic winds, underscoring how exposed U.S. territories remain to western Pacific typhoon threats.
Bavi was slowing and weakening at landfall, but a Category 1 typhoon with rain bands the size of France still carries enormous flood risk. The sheer number of people moved, nearly two million, reflects the scale of the threat Chinese authorities perceived. Whether those evacuations prove sufficient will depend on how much rain falls over the coming hours and whether infrastructure holds.
The storm's long march across the Pacific, from U.S. territories to Japan to Taiwan to mainland China, is a reminder that typhoons do not respect borders or timetables. The Philippines already buried 17 of its citizens. Taiwan counted 113 injured. China's toll, if there is one, has yet to be tallied.
When governments move two million people in a matter of hours, the question is never whether the effort was worth it. The question is whether anyone learns enough to be better prepared the next time, and in the western Pacific, the next time is never far off.
