East China's Zhejiang Province evacuated more than 70,000 people and called back 12,875 fishing boats on Monday morning as typhoon Fung Wong approached, according to the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters.

Typhoon Fung Wong, which was lashing Taiwan on Monday morning, continued to head toward the mainland, according to the observatory at Zhejiang.

Fung Wong, the eighth tropical storm to hit China's coast, is set to sweep across the Taiwan Straits on Monday and make landfall between Xiapu and Jinjiang counties, in neighboring Fujian at midnight.

Fung Wong will be the strongest tropical storm so far this year, and will strike along China's eastern and southern regions with heavy rain and strong winds, according to observatories in Fujian, Guangdong, Zhejiang and Jiangxi provinces.

The provinces issued orange bad weather alerts, the second highest.

Ferries between the mainland and Taiwan were suspended for at least two days because of the typhoon, said the Fuzhou frontier inspection station.

(Xinhua News Agency July 28, 2008)