Beijing residents were told to stay home, tourist sites were closed and thousands of flights were canceled across the country.
Beijing’s 22 million residents were asked to stay indoors on Saturday, as powerful winds swept across northern China. The winds toppled trees, disrupted travel and sports, and caused dust storms across the region.
The winds, which in Beijing reached 101 miles per hour on Saturday afternoon local time, stemmed from a polar vortex in Mongolia and sent temperatures plunging, according to the Chinese state news media.
Wind and rain began hitting the region on Friday. By Saturday afternoon, more than 800 trees had been knocked over and nearly 7,000 people had been evacuated in Beijing, the state media reported.
Overnight into Saturday morning, dust storms swirled across the country’s north, including in Beijing, the state broadcaster China Central Television said.
Yang Bobo, a postgraduate student studying finance in Beijing, said Friday night’s gale was “wailing like ghosts and howling like wolves.” The wind dislodged a glass door at her school, she said, sending it crashing to the ground.
“I didn’t go out last night since I value my life,” Ms. Yang said through text messages on Saturday.
Winds rattled windows in Beijing, and damaged utility poles and windows in central China’s Henan Province, according to videos shared on Weibo, a Chinese social media platform.
The city authorities in Beijing advised residents to avoid nonessential travel, and postponed soccer matches that had been scheduled for the weekend. City transportation officials suspended train and bus services on Friday and Saturday, and nationwide thousands of flights were canceled on Saturday.
Tourist attractions including the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace and a popular section of the Great Wall were closed. A marathon scheduled for Sunday in Beijing was postponed until next week.
After a string of 80-degree days in the city, temperatures were forecast to reach only 57 Fahrenheit on Saturday. Strong winds were also predicted for nearby Shanxi and Hebei provinces, and for China’s Inner Mongolia region, the state news media reported.
Meteorologists in South Korea and Japan also issued strong wind warnings on Saturday along the countries’ western coasts. The winds there were linked to the same weather system that was affecting China, said Woo Jin-gyu, an official with the Korea Meteorological Administration.