"Typhoon-prone" is a phrase this site uses about Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Sanya and the summer months generally, and it has never been cashed out. When to visit which part of China gives you the season — broadly July to September, worst on the southeast coast — and that is the planning half of the question. This is the other half: what actually happens, and what you are supposed to do, when one is coming.
The answer is unusually legible, because China does not leave it to judgement. Severe weather is announced on a four-colour scale, the colours are defined nationally, and each one carries published instructions.
The four colours#
The scale comes from the 气象灾害预警信号发布与传播办法 (Qìxiàng zāihài yùjǐng xìnhào fābù yǔ chuánbō bànfǎ, Measures for the Issuance and Dissemination of Meteorological Disaster Warning Signals), China Meteorological Administration Order No. 16, published and in force from 12 June 2007. It sets four grades for every kind of severe weather — 蓝色 (lánsè, blue), 黄色 (huángsè, yellow), 橙色 (chéngsè, orange) and 红色 (hóngsè, red) — meaning, in order, ordinary, fairly serious, serious and especially serious.
For typhoons specifically, each colour has a time window and a wind threshold. Wind is given in 级 (jí), the Beaufort force number, which is the standard Chinese unit for this and the one you will see on any app or news bulletin:
| Colour | Within | Sustained wind | Gusts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blue 蓝色 | 24 hours | Force 6+ | Force 8+ |
| Yellow 黄色 | 24 hours | Force 8+ | Force 10+ |
| Orange 橙色 | 12 hours | Force 10+ | Force 12+ |
| Red 红色 | 6 hours | Force 12+ | Force 14+ |
Force 12 is hurricane force, the top of the traditional Beaufort scale. A red typhoon warning is therefore not a strong wind advisory; it is a statement that hurricane-force wind is expected within six hours.
The worse it is, the less warning you get#
Read the "within" column again, because it runs the wrong way round and this is the single most useful thing on the page.
A blue or yellow warning looks 24 hours ahead. Orange looks 12. Red looks six. The scale is not measuring how much notice you have — it is measuring how close and how severe the thing is, and severity arrives with less lead time, not more.
The practical consequence for a traveller is that the useful moment to act is blue or yellow, a day out, while flights are still moving and a train seat can still be changed. By the time the warning is orange you are inside twelve hours and reacting rather than deciding. Waiting for the alarming colour before you take it seriously is exactly backwards.
Orange is where the city stops#
Each colour carries a 防御指南 (fángyù zhǐnán, defence guideline), and the step change is at orange.
- Blue — outdoor group activities and high-level outdoor work stop; vessels take precautions, returning to port or routing around.
- Yellow — large indoor and outdoor gatherings stop; port facilities are reinforced.
- Orange — large gatherings stop, and so do 停课 (tíng kè, classes) and 停业 (tíng yè, business), other than special sectors; shipping is to return to port.
- Red — gatherings, classes and business all stop, special sectors excepted.
So the threshold at which an ordinary city day ceases to function is orange, not red. Museums, parks, shopping streets, restaurants and attractions are the sort of business that closes; ferries and boat trips have already gone by then. If your plan for that day was the Li River, a harbour cruise or an island, it is over before the wind arrives.
What it does to the rest of the trip#
Flights are the expensive part, and not because of the delay. A typhoon is a weather cause, and under the civil aviation rules a weather delay leaves the hotel bill with you — the airline must help you arrange a room, but you pay for it. That asymmetry is the reason to move a flight while a warning is still blue rather than be re-accommodated after it turns orange. The one thing that flips the liability is being stranded at an en-route stop or diverted, which is not a situation you can choose.
Trains behave better. High-speed lines on the southeast coast do close in typhoon season, and when they do, whole blocks of services vanish at once — but a cancelled Chinese train is refunded on entirely different terms from a cancelled flight, and the alternative departure is usually the same day. If a leg of your trip can be either a flight or a train during typhoon season, this is an argument for the train that has nothing to do with journey time.
Attractions and ferries close on their own authority and often earlier than the city does, because getting visitors off a mountain, an island or a river takes hours.
What to do about it#
- Look at the colour, not the forecast. Any Chinese weather app and every news bulletin leads with the signal. It is the operative information; the wind speeds are the reasoning behind it.
- Act at blue or yellow. That is when you still have a day and a choice.
- Prefer the train for southeast coastal legs in July, August and September.
- Do not book an island, a boat or a mountain as the only plan for a day with a warning already up.
- Treat the season as a planning input, not a reason to stay away. Typhoons are episodic — a few days, a few times a season — and the rest of the summer on that coast is simply hot.
Hong Kong and Macau run their own tropical cyclone signalling, separate from the mainland scale and from each other, so a mainland colour is not the number you will hear quoted there.
Frequently asked questions#
What do China's typhoon warning colours mean?#
Blue, yellow, orange and red, in rising order of severity, defined nationally by China Meteorological Administration Order No. 16 of 2007. Blue and yellow look 24 hours ahead, orange twelve and red six, with wind thresholds rising from Beaufort force 6 to force 12 and above. Orange and red are the levels at which classes and business stop.
At what typhoon warning level does everything close in China?#
Orange. The published defence guideline for an orange typhoon warning suspends large gatherings, classes and business other than special sectors, and requires shipping back to port. Red repeats those measures for a more severe storm arriving within six hours. Attractions, parks and ferries frequently close earlier than the city as a whole.
When is typhoon season in China?#
Roughly July to September, concentrated on the southeast coast from Hainan and Guangdong up through Fujian and Zhejiang towards Shanghai. Inland and northern China are unaffected. When to visit each region sets the season against everything else that makes a month good or bad.
Should I cancel a China trip because of a typhoon?#
Usually not the trip — typhoons are episodic rather than continuous, lasting days rather than weeks. What is worth changing is the order of things: move coastal and island days, favour trains over flights on affected legs, and keep an inland or indoor alternative for any day with a warning already showing.
Will my flight be cancelled in a typhoon?#
Very possibly, and the cost lands differently from how travellers expect. A typhoon is a weather cause, so a Chinese airline must help you arrange accommodation but is not obliged to pay for it. Who pays for what when a Chinese flight is delayed sets out the four cases, including the two where the airline pays whatever caused the disruption.
Do trains stop during typhoons in China?#
Yes — high-speed services on the southeast coast are suspended when a serious typhoon warning is in force, often in large blocks at once. The compensation position is much better than for flights, and the next available departure is usually the same day. How Chinese rail handles a missed or cancelled train covers the refund and change rules that apply.