'All gone:' Chinese villagers left with nothing after deadly floods

Villager Hu Yuefang returned to her home on the rural outskirts of Beijing to pick up medicine for her elderly and disabled father, only to find it had been washed away by some of worst flooding to hit the Chinese capital in years.

- Mary YANG

Swathes of northern China have endured deadly rains and floods this week that killed at least 48 people and forced the evacuation of tens of thousands.

Shanghai relocated more than 280,000 people, halted hundreds of flights and ferry services and imposed speed limits on roads and railways on Wednesday evening as a tropical storm whipped eastern China with gales and heavy rain.

Landfall by Co-May in the port city of Zhoushan in Zhejiang province early on Wednesday was soon followed by warnings of a tsunami set off by a powerful earthquake off Russia's far east, raising concerns of larger-than-expected storm surges along the Chinese coast. Authorities lifted the tsunami warnings for Shanghai and Zhoushan later in the day.

While the winds from Co-May were weaker than those generated by typhoons, the Chinese financial hub and other cities in the Yangtze River delta have taken no chances. At least 640 flights could be cancelled at Shanghai's two main airports on Wednesday, including 410 at Pudong and 230 at Hongqiao, authorities said.