Typhoon Dolphin hits Shanghai and eastern China: over 1,500 flights cancelled, more than 1 million evacuated

What happened

Typhoon Dolphin made landfall near Yuhuan in eastern Zhejiang province, just south of Shanghai, at around 5:30pm local time on Sunday, August 9, 2026, packing maximum sustained winds of roughly 42 metres per second (about 151 km/h). It was the strongest storm to hit China's east coast so far this year, and it arrived with heavy rainfall that Chinese state media described as record-breaking in parts of the region.

Shanghai's two main airports, Hongqiao and Pudong, cancelled roughly 1,500 flights as the storm approached, with the airports scrapping about 60 percent of scheduled Sunday departures and arrivals (Al Jazeera). Across major Chinese airports, more than 2,300 flights were cancelled in total as carriers grounded aircraft ahead of the worst of the winds (Euronews).

Authorities evacuated more than 1 million people from coastal and low-lying areas across the region. Shanghai itself moved roughly 30,000 residents out of vulnerable housing and construction sites, while in neighboring Zhejiang province the city of Wenzhou relocated more than 900,000 people and opened over 1,000 emergency shelters ahead of the storm's arrival (Spokesman-Review). Chinese authorities issued a red alert, the highest level in the country's four-tier typhoon warning system, and warned of flooding and landslides in hilly parts of Zhejiang as the storm pushed rainfall inland (VisaVerge).

As of this report, Typhoon Dolphin has moved inland and is weakening, and Shanghai's airports have begun restoring flight schedules, though delays and some cancellations are likely to continue for a day or two while backlogs clear and ground crews assess any residual flooding.

Why it matters for travelers

Shanghai is one of the world's busiest travel hubs and a major layover point for flights between Europe, North America and the rest of Asia, so a storm of this scale has outsized ripple effects even for travelers who have no plans to visit the city itself. A cancelled connecting flight through Pudong or Hongqiao during a typhoon can strand passengers for a day or more, particularly if hotel rooms and rebooking slots are scarce during a mass-cancellation event.

For travelers actually in Shanghai or planning to arrive in the days immediately after landfall, the main risks are not the wind itself, since the eye of the storm passed south of the city in Zhejiang, but the secondary effects: localized flooding in low-lying streets and underpasses, disrupted metro and bus service during the worst of the rain, and the logistical chaos of an airport working through a backlog of delayed passengers.

This is a weather event, not a crime or security incident, and it does not reflect on Shanghai's underlying safety for travelers. Shanghai remains one of the safer major cities in Asia for visitors, with a strong record on street crime, reliable infrastructure, and a government that takes storm preparedness seriously, evidenced by the scale and speed of this evacuation and alert response. Typhoons are a predictable, seasonal feature of travel to eastern China between roughly June and October, and the city's disaster response systems are well practiced at handling them.

What to do

If you have a flight booked through Shanghai in the next few days, check your airline's app or website before heading to the airport rather than relying on a printed itinerary. Chinese carriers and Pudong/Hongqiao airport authorities typically post real-time cancellation and rebooking information via their official channels, and many airlines waive change fees automatically during a named typhoon event, so it is worth checking your booking for an automatic rebooking offer before calling a support line.

If you are already in Shanghai, avoid unnecessary travel through low-lying underpasses and riverside walkways until local authorities confirm flooding has cleared, and keep an eye on the Shanghai Meteorological Bureau's alert level if you plan to be outdoors. The city's metro system is generally reliable even in heavy rain, but individual stations near flood-prone areas can see temporary closures, so build extra time into any airport transfer.

Travelers with onward connections elsewhere in eastern China, including Hangzhou, Ningbo, Wenzhou and other parts of Zhejiang, should expect the most significant disruption in those areas rather than in Shanghai itself, since the storm made landfall further south. If your itinerary routes through any of those cities in the coming days, build in extra buffer time and consider travel insurance that covers weather-related delays if you do not already have it.

For most visitors with flexible plans, the practical advice is simple: check flight status before leaving for the airport, expect the city to largely return to normal within a few days of landfall, and treat this as routine seasonal weather risk management rather than a reason to cancel a trip to Shanghai. Travelers who prefer to avoid typhoon season entirely can plan visits to eastern China for the spring (March to May) or autumn (October to November) shoulder seasons, when the region sees far less storm activity.

Overall, Shanghai's response to Typhoon Dolphin, rapid evacuations, proactive flight cancellations well ahead of landfall, and clear public alerts, reflects a city with mature disaster infrastructure rather than one caught off guard. That is a reassuring sign for travelers weighing a trip during the region's storm season, even as this particular event causes short-term inconvenience.

As a general rule for anyone traveling to coastal China between June and October, it is worth building one buffer day into any itinerary that depends on a tight flight connection, and worth signing up for your airline's SMS or app alerts before you leave home so you hear about a schedule change as early as possible rather than finding out at the gate.