Typhoon Matsa battered China's eastern coast with strong winds and heavy rain this morning, forcing more than a million people from their homes.
The domestic airport in the country's financial hub, Shanghai, was shut and most international departures were cancelled. Debris and small floods clogged streets after downpours in the night.
A shed on one of the city's many construction sites collapsed in the rain, killing one person and injuring two, the official Xinhua agency reported.
Matsa made landfall before dawn in coastal Zhejiang province, where officials had evacuated over 1.24 million people. It was heading northwest, threatening the scenic provincial capital of Hangzhou.
Officials there said the storm could wreak more havoc than last year's Typhoon Rananim, which killed 164 and caused an estimated 18 billion yuan in damage.
Safe harbours have been arranged for 41,000 ships and regional authorities have been urged to lower water levels behind rain-swollen dams to try to avoid flooding.
In July, Typhoon Haitang killed 12 people in Taiwan, where three people are still missing, and forced the evacuation of a million Chinese residents.
Typhoons gather strength from warm sea water and tend to dissipate after making landfall. They frequently hit Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, Hong Kong and southern China during a typhoon season that lasts from early summer to late autumn.