Hao Hao ReportThe best China news and blog posts

Lin Xianglian was cowering in his kitchen from the strongest typhoon to hit China in half a century when he heard a roar and the house next door collapsed.

"I didn't dare go look what was happening. The wind was so strong my wife and I together were leaning on the front door to stop it blowing in and water was flooding in the back..."

A typhoon was approaching. I needed to get into town before it hit. I didn't. But I got a nice tour of Eastern China.

A powerful typhoon headed toward the eastern Chinese coast on Monday forcing over 200,000 people to seek higher ground, state media said, after it battered Taiwan over the weekend.

SHANGHAI - The death toll from a highly infectious virus that preys on children rose to 24 Sunday as it spread to a new province amid heightened efforts by China's Health Ministry to contain it.

The official Xinhua News Agency said an 18-month old boy who died in Foshan city in Guangdong province Friday had enterovirus 71, known as EV-71. Another child who died in the same district on April 25 also tested positive, it said.

The deaths follow 22 already reported in central Anhui province, 1,000 miles to the north. More than 3,000 have been infected.

The most powerful typhoon to hit China in five decades raged across its southeastern coast Thursday, capsizing ships and destroying homes after 1.5 million people evacuated. At least two people were killed and dozens were injured.

State media have been updating on the climbing death toll as the scale of the cyclone disaster unfolds, but in the same manner that they might report a minor landslip on the other side of the planet. Newsflash: this is happening next door - so pull your fingers out!

The New York Times (via CDT) describes how many people in China have been incensed by jubilant celebrations of the Olympics Torch relay in Fujian Province.

It seems rather futile blogging about other issues in light of the fact that thousands of people still left buried by the Earthquake in Sichuan. The death toll now exceeds 12,000 and is sure to increase. The Olympics seem relatively trivial.

More than ten thousand taxi drivers in Zhengzhou, capital of Henan province have gone on strike starting July 30, a number of blog posts yesterday and today are saying. The reason for the strike remains largely unclear and Chinese media have yet to report on the situation, but at least one blogger is saying that the local authorities are dealing with the situation by bringing in cabs and drivers from surrounding cities.

China kicked off its National Day celebrations Monday by highlighting its hosting of the Beijing Olympics and the country's first spacewalk, two hard-won successes in a tumultuous year marked by natural disasters, ethnic unrest and another food safety scandal.