With the looming threat of Typhoon Prapiroon south China's island province Hainan on Wednesday suspended all passenger ferry services across the Qiongzhou Strait which links the island with the mainland.

At 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday ferry services were suspended and some 350 vessels entered typhoon-proof berths in the port of Haikou, capital of Hainan Province.

And for reasons of safety Chinese railway authorities suspended Thursday's service from Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong, to the island province of Hainan. In addition all fishing vessels from Hainan have been ordered to return to harbor.

The provincial fishery department said Wednesday that most vessels were safely in port. More than 200 boats were moored in Sanya and Yulin on Wednesday, a fishery official said. If the storm gained strength the vessels at Sanya harbor would move to better shelter at Yulin, the official added.

Prapiroon is expected to affect Hainan, Guangdong, Guangxi and Guizhou bringing with it 100-180 millimeters of rain, said Wang Bangzhong, an official with the Chinese Central Meteorological Station.

Wang predicted August would see another five or six tropical storms form in the waters around the South China Sea but perhaps only two or three would make landfall.

Prapiroon killed five people when it crossed the northern Philippines earlier in the week.

Hainan and Guangdong Provinces and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, all in south China, have relocated 65,000 people and recalled 53,200 vessels by Wednesday noon.

Prapiroon, which means Rain God in Thai, formed in the South China Sea and strengthened into a typhoon on Wednesday noon. It’s expected to lash south China for three-four days, according to the Chinese Central Meteorological Station.

At 5:00 p.m. Wednesday it was located 19.3 degrees north and 114.1 degrees east which is 340 kilometers from Guangdong's Yangjiang city. It was carrying winds of up to 119 kilometers per hour as it moved northwestward.

China being hit by more typhoons and tropical rainstorms this year was in part due to the warming ocean current in the northwest Pacific and high temperatures on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, said Wang.

The year's first typhoon, Chanchu, struck on May 18, which is at least 40 days earlier than normal. Prapiroon is the sixth typhoon to hit China this year. The fifth, Kaemi, in late July claimed 35 lives including six at a military barracks in east China's Jiangxi Province.

The forth typhoon, Bilis, lashed south and east China killing 612 people in southern China in mid July.

(Xinhua News Agency August 3, 2006)