Sept. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Chinese authorities evacuated people and issued warnings in eastern coastal areas as the country prepared for the approach of Typhoon Wipha, which is passing north of Taiwan, where markets and offices closed today.

The government of Zhejiang province, south of Shanghai, warned coastal residents on its Web site that the storm will be ``very strong.'' Wipha's eye is expected to make landfall near the city of Wenzhou late today or early tomorrow. Shanghai ordered the evacuation of 200,000 people.

In Taiwan, the government closed markets and offices and warned of heavy rain and strong winds as the typhoon passed north of the island with winds as high as 250 kilometers per hour (156 miles per hour). Taipei and seven other cities and counties shut for the day, as did the Taiwan Stock Exchange and other exchanges.

China Airlines and EVA Airways Corp., Taiwan's two largest carriers, Japan Airlines Corp. and other companies canceled or delayed more than 120 flights, mostly between Taiwan and Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Macau, according to the Ministry of Transportation and Communications Web site.

Hong Kong Dragon Airlines Ltd., called Dragonair, canceled its flight to Hangzhou, China this evening and the return flight tomorrow, it said in an e-mailed statement. Dragonair is a regional carrier owned by Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd.

Wipha's eye was 260 kilometers south of Wenzhou as of 7:00 p.m. local time. The storm was moving northwest at 20 to 25 kilometers per hour, the China Meteorological Administration said in an e-mailed statement.

Shanghai Prepares

Shanghai's schools and kindergartens will be closed tomorrow, Zhang Zhenyu, the head of the city's natural disaster department, said in a phone interview. City authorities have moved 75,000 residents from ``high-risk areas'' by 2 p.m., he said. Colleges will remain open tomorrow.

Chen Ji, a spokesman for the Shanghai Stock Exchange, said trading will continue as normal tomorrow.

``We've been in touch with the city government and we don't expect the storm to have any impact on trading tomorrow,'' Chen said by phone today.

Wipha is expected to be the strongest storm to hit Shanghai in 10 years, the Chinese-language Oriental Morning Post said.

The eye of the storm is forecast to be close to Shanghai tomorrow after 2 p.m. local time, according to the latest advisory on the U.S. Navy Joint Typhoon Warning Center's Web site.

The storm's maximum sustained winds slowed to 130 kilometers per hour, with gusts to 191 kilometers an hour, according to the Taiwan bureau's bulletin.

Wipha's winds slowed to 130 kilometers per hour, with gusts to 160 kilometers per hour at 9 p.m. Taiwan time, according to the latest advisory from the U.S. Navy. Earlier the storm was classified as a Supertyphoon, with 250 kilometer-per-hour winds.

Offices Shut

In Taiwan, Taipei City, Taipei County, Keelung City, Ilan County, Taoyuan County, Hsinchu City, Hsinchu County and Miaoli County offices were shut for the day, the government's Central Personnel Administration said on its Web site. The rest of the island remains open, it said.

Land and sea alerts were issued yesterday by the Taiwan bureau, which warned fishermen to take extra care. The storm will affect northern and northeastern Taiwan all day today, the bureau said.

About 8,000 households were left without power and 44 mobile phone stations were affected, according to the Web site of Taiwan's National Fire Agency. About 4,300 sailors from China sought shelter in Taiwan's harbors.

The typhoon has dumped as much as 495 millimeters (19 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.

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 Web site of the U.S. Navy's typhoon center.

To contact the reporters on this story: James Peng in Taipei at jpeng7@bloomberg.net; John Liu in Shanghai at jliu42@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: September 18, 2007 10:05 EDT