Typhoon Wipha Slams China: Level-14 Winds Uproot Trees, Submerge Cities

It's all covered in today's China Truths. Wow, did you see that? The treetop of such a big tree really creates a sense of pressure. It's terrifying. A car was crushed and trees blown down by the wind are everywhere on the road. It's overwhelming. The wind here is really strong. Look, in just a bit we won't be able to move anymore. Let's go quickly. Hurry, hurry, we must leave no matter what. This is the scene on the night of July 19th when Guangdong province was struck by typhoon Wifa. A group of tourists was trapped in a mountain cave due to the storm. At Lingding Yang Bay, wind strength reached level 15, with maximum wind speeds of 45 meters per second. The typhoon brought heavy rain and intense scenes of destruction. It was storming and I was still standing under an overpass. Wind was blowing in from all directions. We had entered a level 10 wind zone. In Bailian New City, the wind was so strong that all kinds of banging and crashing sounds could be heard in the streets. Many signboards had been blown slanted. At 9.50 am, there were barely any people or vehicles on the road. Ladies, just look at this weather. Typhoon Wifa is having a severe impact on Shenzhen. Trees are down everywhere. On July 20th, typhoon Wifa swept across the southern coastal areas of China, bringing powerful winds and flooding to several cities in Guangdong and Hainan provinces. Numerous flights were cancelled and high-speed rail operations were suspended. The storm made landfall along the Guangdong coast, bringing level 14 gusts and heavy rain. Trees were bent at 90 degrees or snapped, falling across roads. Haiku City, Hainan, also faced strong winds and flooding, with certain areas submerged. The Shenzhen Observatory, located on Dapeng Peninsula, recorded level 14 winds. A video shows the typhoon blowing down a streetlight at the observatory. Another clip reveals intensifying winds in parts of Shenzhen, toppling trees. Due to the storm, airports in Shenzhen, Zhuhai and other cities cancelled or delayed all daytime flights. Some high-speed rail and metro lines also suspended service. Zhuhai and Yangjiang issued orders to suspend classes and work. A group of hikers in Shenzhen had to descend the mountain during the fierce winds. This is terrifying. One netizen commented, At 7pm last night, the parks in Shenzhen were already closed. The mountain paths should have been shut too. How did they even get up there? In China, even during typhoons, working-class people still struggle to make a living. The road is all flooded. How am I supposed to walk here? Oh my god! Mom, how are we supposed to get through this? The government relocated evacuees to schools. The typhoon's here, and the government told us to sleep in the school. They gave each person two buckets of instant noodles. Before the typhoon made landfall, authorities reported that more than 270,000 people across Guangdong province had been evacuated to avoid the storm. Currently, I'm at the Shenzhen Zhongshan Bridge, located in Zhongshan City, Guangdong province. Behind me is the Shenzhen Zhongshan Bridge itself. I weigh 150 jin, about 75 kilos, and I'm pulling a suitcase that weighs nearly 30 jin, 15 kiao, but while walking on the bridge, I feel like the wind is pushing me forward. You can really feel how powerful the wind is right now. Although the rain isn't heavy, the trees around me are all being blown to one side. On both sides of the road, many trees have already been knocked down by the wind. Behind me, the sea is raging violently. On my left, there's a tree more than 10 meters tall that has been completely uprooted and now lies flat on the ground. Just imagine how strong this storm is. Trees being ripped out from the ground. According to statistics, in recent days, the extreme weather caused by Typhoon Huifa has affected more than 370,000 people. Among them, around 43,000 people were forced to evacuate due to flooding, landslides, and strong winds. More than 400 houses have been damaged by the typhoon. A netizen named Yangjiao Cui said, The power of Typhoon Huifa this time is truly terrifying. Even big and sturdy trees have been uprooted. Another netizen, Menghua Weizhuang, said, I didn't expect so many lives to be affected behind a single storm. In Zhuhai, a mother was seen carrying her child through waist-deep floodwaters. In Shenzhen, workers waited for storm alerts inside leaky construction shelters. In Hainan, fishermen looked on in despair as their boats were submerged. Level 14 wind gusts can rip off rooftops. 300 millimeters of rainfall is equivalent to the height of an adult's knee. School closures, work suspensions, and halted operations mean the lives of countless people have come to a temporary standstill. The human high-speed railway station suspended all services before 3 p.m. Right now, a lot of people are lining up to get refunds. If you haven't arrived yet, don't come. Just get your ticket refunded quickly. This is the scene at 3 a.m. on July 20th, at the coastal highway on Fengsha Island, Shanwei City. It's 3 a.m. I'm live streaming this for everyone. Oh my god, I'm in Hainan right now. Oh, today is July 20th, live on the scene. This is the scene at Haidongfang Beach Park in Dongfang City, Hainan Province. This pressure is overwhelming. Hong Kong was also affected by Typhoon Wipha. On the morning of July 20th, the Hong Kong Observatory issued a signal number 10 storm warning, equivalent to level 10 typhoon winds. For reference, signal number 10 is the highest level of tropical cyclone alert in Hong Kong. This is terrifying. The typhoon winds now are way stronger than earlier. Look at the little yarn ball I tied here. It's shaking violently from the wind. The net in the middle of the cord has been ripped apart, and several balls have already floated far away. The waves on the sea are now over a meter high. In recent years, both natural and man-made disasters have been increasingly frequent in mainland China. These disasters have physically and mentally exhausted the people. Yet, to sustain their livelihoods, working class citizens still head out to work, sell goods, or deliver food even in the storm. They brave the wind and rain, and after work, they still have to wade through floodwaters just to cross the road, all so their families can have something to eat. It's all covered in today's China Truths. Shunde District, Foshan City, Guangdong Province, was the first to have an outbreak of chikungunya fever recently. On July 15th, the official report said that 478 cases were confirmed in the district. After that, the epidemic spread rapidly. On the 19th, 1,199 cases of chikungunya fever were confirmed in three districts of Foshan City, Guangdong Province. There is currently no specific medicine available which has aroused concern. According to the latest official report from Foshan on July 19th, a total of 1,199 confirmed cases of chikungunya fever were reported in Shunde District, Nanhai District, and Chancheng District, Foshan City, Guangdong Province, all of which were mild cases. The health bureaus of Shunde District, Nanhai District, and Chancheng District of Foshan City reported on the 19th that as of the 18th, Shunde District had reported a total of 1,161 confirmed cases of chikungunya fever, mainly concentrated in Likong Town, Beizhou Town, and Chenkun Town. Shunde District, Nanhai District, and Chancheng District have all issued a letter to all citizens, calling on the general public to make full use of the weekend to promptly remove mosquito breeding grounds and kill adult mosquitoes. CCTV News reported that late on the 18th, the Shunde-release WeChat account issued a letter to all citizens warning of a chikungunya outbreak in Shunde District. The disease is spread by Aedes albopictus mosquitoes, and infection risk is rising. Residents, businesses, and institutions are urged to launch a mosquito control campaign from July 19th to 20th. Chikungunya fever is an acute infectious disease caused by the chikungunya virus, similar to dengue, and mainly spread by Aedes mosquitoes. Symptoms typically appear within three to seven days and include fever, severe joint pain, or rash, often accompanied by muscle pain, headache, nausea, and fatigue. Chikungunya fever spreads rapidly, and there is currently no specific medicine. As of July 17th, the Wuhan and Chongqing Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have also issued warnings about the chikungunya epidemic. Regarding the chikungunya epidemic, American virology expert Dr. Lin Xiaochu told the reporter, If you are infected with chikungunya, it will cause many harms to human health. If it is an acute symptom, it will have a high fever, about 39 to 40 degrees, severe joint pain and swelling, and then nausea, red eyes, tears, and other symptoms. If there are sequelae after the infection, the most important one is chronic arthritis, which will also have some serious complications. A Guangdong netizen said, I'm in Foshan. I'm shivering. It's over. I'm infected too. Joint pain, fever, rash. This year's mosquitoes are very poisonous. It hurts, itches, and inflames. One epidemic, the next heat stroke. Another Guangdong netizen said, Last year there was dengue fever. This year there's this. Last time there was dengue fever in Guangdong, it was firmly suppressed. Last year, a dengue fever family was wiped out. New sequelae. The epidemic is very serious. The infection department is full. Why are only these few patients reported? So fast there were only more than 400 a few days ago. Shenzhen Home Prices. Have. Beijing Rewinds. Six Years. Buyers Left Broke. In the summer of 2025, someone opened the intermediary app and was dumbfounded after looking at the quotation for their own community. The house that was bought by emptying six wallets and leveraging three years ago is now worth only 60% of the original purchase price. Someone in their circle of friends ridiculed themselves. This is not buying a house. This is buying a lesson with the salary of the next 30 years. What's more heartbreaking is that all this is not from the old calendar, but the reality that is happening at this moment. Whether you are a rigid demand buyer or a speculator who took over at a high price, you are now standing at the same cold wind outlet facing a completely reversed real estate market logic. If time could go back, many people would not have gone crazy buying houses around 2021. At that time, a house in Shenzhen cost tens of millions of yuan, and it could be sold within three days of listing. The old and dilapidated houses outside the Fifth Ring Road in Beijing rose faster than second-hand luxury cars, and even the houses outside the Outer Ring Road in Shanghai had to be snatched up. Now three years have passed, and the decline in housing prices has exceeded many people's psychological expectations. Some residential areas in Shenzhen have fallen by 70% from their peak, and old and dilapidated houses have become the kings of value diving. The price of commercial housing in the Outer Ring of Shanghai has basically returned to the Guangzhou is not far behind. From Tianhe to Huangpu, the general decline is more than 30%. Beijing is more stable, but the prices of many projects outside the Sixth Ring Road are no longer as high as they were six years ago. Behind these figures is the huge shrinkage of each family's assets. The middle class, who gritted their teeth, converted the down payment into full payment and scraped together to pay the mortgage, now not only have serious book losses but may also face the dilemma of having no one to take over even if they want to sell. Some speculators posted the loan schedules of their three houses on social platforms with only one sentence in the text, I can't bear it anymore.