Typhoon leaving cooler days in its wake

The remaining National Day holiday week will be cool in North China, one of the aftereffects of Typhoon Mitag. Some parts of the region will see temperatures drop by 12 C, the National Meteorological Center said on Wednesday.

Through Friday, days will be cooler in the Inner Mongolia and Ningxia Hui autonomous regions, Beijing, Tianjin and the provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning.

Those areas will see temperatures drop by 6 to 10 C, according to a notice released by the center, which also forecast heavy winds in those places.

"Typhoon Mitag, which made landfall in Zhejiang province on Tuesday night, has brought heavy rains in some parts of Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan provinces, and it will continue to bring cold air to the northern part of the Yangtze River," it said.

China has a four-tier, color-coded weather warning system for typhoons with red representing the most severe, followed by orange, yellow and blue.

On Monday, the center issued a yellow alert for Typhoon Mitag, as it was expected to bring strong winds and torrential rains to eastern China.

Packing winds of up to 108 kilometers per hour in its eye, Mitag, the 18th typhoon of the year, struck land in Zhoushan's Putuo district at around 8:30 pm on Tuesday - the first day of this year's National Day holiday.

Several residents in Zhoushan were trapped at home by heavy rain. According Hangzhou Daily, firefighters rescued a pregnant woman and three children, including an 11 months old infant, in Zhoushan on Tuesday night.

A total of 18,741 fishing boats in Zhejiang had returned to port or had taken shelter in safe waters as of Tuesday morning.

In Fujian province, the flood control headquarters launched an emergency response that included ordering 23,067 seaside residents to evacuate. Forty-three tourist spots and 241 construction sites have been shut down so far.

The notice said cold air brought by Mitag will sweep the country over the next three days. There will be moderate or heavy rain in South, Southwest and Southeast China.

According to the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, more than 3,500 firefighters and commanders with rescue equipment were put on standby for missions across the affected regions, and more than 960 soldiers had been deployed for typhoon relief work.

The National Meteorological Center said another typhoon forming in the West Pacific is likely to land on the southeast coast of China around the end of this month. It also said tourists should arrange their plans reasonably during the peak period of holiday travel and stay alert for potential disasters such as landslides and mudslides.

On Tuesday, a 140-meter-long arched bridge collapsed into a bay on Taiwan's east coast, killing four people. Two others were missing, according to local news reports.

The bridge collapsed as Typhoon Mitag swept by the island. According to the Associated Press, the weather was sunny at the time, and it wasn't clear if the storm was a factor.