China’s summer travel rush ran into a major weather wall on 3 July when Typhoon Maysak – the 10th named storm of the 2026 season – swept across Hainan. By mid-afternoon the National Meteorological Center had renewed a yellow alert as sustained winds of 20 m/s lashed the island’s southern coast and rain bands pushed deep inland. A joint emergency meeting involving the Civil Aviation Administration, air-traffic control and Sanya Phoenix International Airport decided to halt all take-offs and landings from 17:00 local time. By 11:30, 92 flights had already been cancelled and another 87 completed ahead of the shutdown, leaving an estimated 14 000 passengers in limbo at Hainan’s busiest leisure gateway. Ground transport fared no better. China Railway Guangzhou Group suspended every high-speed and conventional train crossing the Qiongzhou Strait, while ferry operators pulled vessels from the Haikou–Guangzhou and Haikou–Beihai routes. Local authorities ordered all mountain, coastal and aerial sightseeing attractions – from the Tianya Haijiao scenic area to zip-line parks – to close until further notice. Travel-management companies are advising corporate travellers to re-route through Guangzhou or Shenzhen and to expect knock-on delays for at least 24 hours after the storm passes. Insurers say trip-cancellation claims linked to “named typhoon” clauses are likely to spike, and airlines are waiving change fees for tickets dated 3–5 July. For assignees and tourists on Hainan’s 30-day visa-free scheme, overstays caused by weather-related cancellations can be regularised with the local National Immigration Administration desk at Sanya airport once operations resume. The episode is a timely reminder that China’s southern resorts remain vulnerable to extreme weather. Mobility managers with large expatriate populations in Guangdong and Hainan are expanding contingency playbooks to cover multi-modal evacuations and rapid re-booking during the peak July–August typhoon window.
Source: english.gov.cn / Xinhua
