Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Typhoon Wipha slammed into the east coast of China with winds of 185 kilometers per hour (116 miles per hour), causing almost $400 million in damage as it headed toward Shanghai. About 2 million people were evacuated.

Wipha's eye crossed the coast in eastern Zhejiang province after 2 a.m. today with winds gusting to 232 kilometers per hour, according to the U.S. Navy Joint Typhoon Warning Center. Winds later decreased to 90 kilometers an hour, meaning Wipha was downgraded to a tropical storm. No deaths have been reported, China's official Xinhua News Agency said.

President Hu Jintao ordered coastal provinces and cities to protect lives and property in a notice on a government Web site. Flights were canceled and the Shanghai Stock Exchange said it would take emergency measures should the storm disrupt trading or communications networks.

The storm caused 2.9 billion yuan ($386 million) of damage when it landed near the city of Wenzhou this morning, knocking down 669 houses and disrupting electricity to 1,867 villages, Xinhua reported.

Miao Jun, a spokesman for the Zhejiang provincial government, declined to comment because he hadn't yet received a report on damage from the storm.

Wipha's eye was forecast to pass to the west of Shanghai by about 8 p.m. local time today, the U.S. Navy center said. The storm's center was over the city of Jinhua, 294 kilometers south-southwest of Shanghai, at 12 p.m. today, according to China's Central Meteorological Bureau.

Shanghai Evacuations

The eye is expected to pass within 100 kilometers of downtown Shanghai, Zhang Zhenyu, the head of Shanghai's natural disaster department, said by telephone today.

``The storm won't have as big an impact as was earlier thought,'' he said. Shanghai evacuated 200,000 people and closed schools and kindergartens in the city ahead of the storm.

Shanghai's two airports are operating today, after some flights were delayed or canceled late yesterday, Zhang said. The airports will assess weather conditions as the storm approaches, he said.

China Eastern Airlines Corp. and Shanghai Airlines Co., the city's two biggest carriers, canceled 30 flights, according to the two companies.

Construction of the 101-story Shanghai World Financial Center, China's tallest skyscraper, was halted yesterday, according to a statement on the Shanghai government's Web site.

Two Women's World Cup soccer matches were postponed today because of the storm, according to the China Daily newspaper.

Canceled Speech

Joaquin Almunia, the European Union's commissioner for economic and monetary affairs, canceled a speech at the China- Europe International Business School in Shanghai today because his flight from Beijing was delayed, according to Laurie Underwood, a spokeswoman for the school.

In Taiwan, Wipha left one person missing and two people injured, according to a notice on the Web site of the National Fire Agency.

About 12,000 households were without power and 124 mobile phone stations were affected, according the agency. About 4,600 sailors from China sought shelter in Taiwan's harbors and the government evacuated 311 people to safer areas. The typhoon damaged 14 roads, the agency said.

The typhoon dumped as much as 760 millimeters (30 inches) of rain in the highlands of northern Taiwan, the weather bureau said. The government issued mudslide warnings and flood alerts for 381 rivers and mountains.

The government closed markets and offices as the typhoon passed north of the island yesterday with winds as high as 250 kilometers per hour. The Taiwan Stock Exchange and other exchanges opened today after being shut yesterday.

Wipha is a name given to women in Thailand, according to the Web site of the Hong Kong Observatory, which lists cyclone names in use in the Pacific. It's the 13th storm of the northwest Pacific cyclone season, according to the U.S. Navy's typhoon center.

To contact the reporter on this story: Aaron Sheldrick in Tokyo at asheldrick@bloomberg.net; John Liu in Shanghai at Jliu42@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: September 19, 2007 02:03 EDT