Relief efforts underway as Typhoon Yagi hits southern China

Authorities in southern China have stepped up rescue efforts after Super Typhoon Yagi roared ashore bringing strong winds, rains and flooding.

The State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters raised its emergency flood and typhoon response from Level IV to Level III in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Friday after Yagi made landfall in the neighboring island province of Hainan.

With the typhoon weakening in Guangxi, the local railway operator has carried out inspections and repairs on railroads, and resumed train operations from 15:00 on Saturday on local high-speed railway lines.

In response to the challenges facing Guangxi, the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters sent a working group to the province to assist in relief work on Friday.

The working group supported local authorities in Nanning, capital city of Guangxi in allocating 12,500 sets of relief material including tents and emergency lighting to typhoon-hit regions, and organized 2,100 firefighters to prepare for emergency rescue. It also organized the provincial natural resources, housing and construction departments to strengthen inspections of key areas such as dams, reservoirs and locations prone to geological hazards. At the same time, it put 20 professional rescue teams in place in case of emergency.

According to the working group's leader Zhao Zhigang, by 11:00 on Saturday, six cities and 15 counties had been severely impacted by the typhoon, with 60,223 residents affected. He said the local power grid operator had reported that 267,845 users had lost power due to the typhoon, while power supply had been restored to 160,707 users, adding that the power supply department is making every effort to speed up repair work.

Elsewhere, Yagi made a second landfall in Xuwen County, in the city of Zhanjiang in south China's Guangdong Province on Friday evening.

In neighboring Leizhou City rescue workers have been busy clearing fallen trees from roads and fixing damaged fiber-optic cables and base stations.

About 18,000 hectares of farmland in Leizhou, which is a major food producing area in Guangdong, has been affected by the typhoon, with 16,000 hectares of crops, including more than 1,133 hectares of bananas, lost to the storm.

Relief efforts underway as Typhoon Yagi hits southern China

Flowers are selling well in many markets across China as people are preparing for the celebration of the upcoming New Year's Day and Spring Festival.

In Taiyuan City of north China's Shanxi Province, local flower markets have seen a peak season with flowers symbolizing good fortune and happiness, such as moth orchids, cyclamens and azaleas, popular among consumers.

"The New Year is coming, and I like flowers carrying auspicious and good connotations. As the saying goes, 'the purple air comes from the east,' which is a propitious omen. They will also add colors to our home," said Ma Xiangyun, a consumer.

In Tianshui City of northwest China's Gansu Province, consumers can choose flowers directly in greenhouses at a floral industrial park, where more than 70 varieties of orchids have come into full blossom.

"Moth orchids are perfect and elegant. I'd like to buy some to gift them to my relatives and friends," said Guo Li, a consumer.

The industrial park provides both online and offline purchasing options for consumers to select fresh flowers and even create customized flower arrangements.

The growing demand of flowers ahead of the New Year has also brought a price hike at the Dounan Flower Market in Kunming City of southwest China's Yunnan.

"The price of flowers has been on the rise over the past month, especially for the red and pink varieties. The average price for a red flower is about 2.2 to 2.3 yuan (30.14 to 31.51 U.S. cents). Those of higher quality are priced at 2.7 to 2.8 yuan or even more than 3 yuan each," said Li Chen, an auctioneer from Kunming Dounan Agricultural Products Auction Co., Ltd.

Flower markets boom in China ahead of New Year