If you were watching Typhoon Dolphin's approach over the weekend, here's where things actually stand this Monday morning: the storm has weakened to tropical-storm strength, and Shanghai is moving from lockdown into cleanup. Below is the real status, not the forecast — plus a few things worth knowing once you're back on your feet.

The storm, as of this morning

Dolphin made landfall near Taizhou on Sunday evening with winds around 151 km/h and has since dropped to tropical-storm intensity. Overnight it brought gusts of force 7 to 9 across most of the city, peaking at force 10 along the coast, and enough rain that authorities warned of up to 30 centimeters of standing water in low-lying areas. The city sealed 46 road underpasses as a precaution and evacuated more than 215,000 residents from vulnerable zones. The power grid held up with no major outages reported.

Metro: Monday's suspensions are actually wider than they were on Sunday — Lines 3, 5, 16, and the Pujiang Line are all fully suspended, and Lines 1, 2, 6, and 10 are running shortened routes. Seven other lines have speed restrictions on elevated and above-ground sections. If your hotel sits near any of those four suspended lines, plan a taxi or ride-hail instead of waiting it out.

Flights: Pudong and Hongqiao cancelled 943 flights Monday, cutting combined capacity by nearly 40%. Check your flight directly with the airline rather than an old booking confirmation — both airports have expanded assistance desks for stranded travelers.

Trains and roads: High-speed rail is coming back in phases starting Monday morning, so a route that was suspended yesterday may be running today — check with China Railway (12306) rather than assuming. Expressways citywide are under a 40–60 km/h speed limit, and the Donghai Bridge remains closed in both directions.

The bottom line: this reads as the tail end of the disruption, not a new escalation. Past storms of this strength in Shanghai have cleared in one to three days, and Monday's phased rail restart is the first sign of that. Give it through midweek before assuming any specific train or outdoor plan is back to normal.

Once you're moving again: what's actually on this month

Underneath the storm coverage, Shanghai's summer season is in full swing and worth planning around once the weather cooperates.

  • Shanghai Tourism Festival, running through August 31 — the city's summer bookings have roughly doubled year on year, with visitors from the US, UK, Germany, Spain, Greece, and Brazil turning up in particular numbers. The festival's popular threads are hands-on rather than sightseeing-only: tai chi lessons, Chinese cooking classes, and liquor tastings, alongside the usual markets and waterfront events.
  • Global Taste: Asian Flavors season, part of a year-long international food festival the city launched in 2026 — worth checking for pop-up dining events if food is your main reason for visiting.
  • Shanghai All Food Expo, August 27–29 at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre — this one's trade-oriented (1,200+ exhibitors, mostly B2B), but it's a sign of how much the city is leaning into food as a tourism draw this year.
  • Shanghai Disneyland's 10th anniversary, marked with a year-long "With You, It's Magic+" celebration — new castle show, updated parades, festive decor throughout the park. A Spider-Man-themed coaster in a new Marvel land is also in the pipeline, though no opening date has been confirmed, so don't plan an August trip around it.

Payment: WeChat Pay adds a PayPal option for US visitors

If you're a US-based visitor, WeChat Pay now lets you bind a PayPal account for top-ups and QR payments, alongside the existing option of binding a foreign card directly. It doesn't replace the standard setup — Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Discover, JCB, and Diners Club still bind directly in both Alipay and WeChat Pay — but it's a second on-ramp if your PayPal balance is easier to draw from than a card. Fees are unchanged either way: free under ¥200 per transaction, 3% above that, with many newly-bound cards getting a 60-day fee waiver on daily spending under ¥1,000.

One less form to fill out

If you're applying for a Chinese visa rather than traveling visa-free, there's a genuine simplification worth knowing about: applicants are no longer required to submit flight bookings, hotel reservations, or a detailed itinerary with their application. It's one of the bigger paperwork reductions in recent memory. This doesn't touch the visa-free rules — the 30-day list still covers 50 countries through December 31, 2026, and the 240-hour transit scheme still covers 54 nationalities — it just makes the paid-visa route noticeably less tedious for anyone who needs it.

One thing that hasn't changed: a tourist visa still doesn't get you a Chinese bank account. Mainstream banks require a residence permit or long-stay visa category, so for a short trip, binding your own card into Alipay or WeChat Pay remains the practical way to pay.

The one-line version

Typhoon Dolphin has weakened to a tropical storm and rail service is restarting in phases, but Monday's metro and flight disruptions are actually broader than Sunday's — check status directly rather than assuming. Once you're moving again, the Tourism Festival and food season run through August, WeChat Pay now takes PayPal for US visitors, and getting a paid visa just got a bit less paperwork-heavy.