Eastern China yesterday braced for the arrival of Typhoon Muifa, with thousands of boats ordered to stay in ports after the storm left one person missing further down the coast. Muifa had been due to hit near Shanghai over the weekend, but it changed course while at sea and was now heading for Shandong province where it was to make landfall today morning, the national meteorological centre said. The weather bureau in Shandong said the typhoon was expected to weaken to a tropical storm when it hit, but authorities still ordered around 20,000 fishing boats to remain in dock, the official Xinhua news agency said.Some flights to and from Qingdao - a city in Shandong which was expected to be hit by the storm - were cancelled.Authorities had expressed concern that Muifa may wreak havoc similar to the destruction unleashed by Typhoon Saomai in 2006 - the worst to hit China in 50 years - which killed at least 450 people.As such, more than 600,000 people have already been evacuated from several areas along the eastern coast, including Shanghai.The typhoon brought strong rain and winds to the commercial city yesterday, blowing down power lines, knocking down signposts and toppling trees in some areas, local media reported.“It does not feel like a typhoon at all,” Li Hongjun, 29, a visitor to Shanghai from Shaanxi province, said.“These winds are quite normal. I would think a typhoon would feel much stronger and there should be no one walking in the streets.”In the Yuyuan old town area of Shanghai, intermittent rain kept tourist numbers low, but many shops remained open.An umbrella shop run by Zhu Peinian, 58, was doing a brisk business. “They did tell us that if the typhoon was strong, we would have to shut our shops and take a break for a few days. But we are open because the alert is over,” he said. At least one person went missing in the neighbouring province of Zhejiang when a boat sank, Xinhua reported.Rain and winds brought down nearly 170 houses in the province, and caused 1.9bn yuan ($290mn) in direct economic losses, it added.The two airports in Shanghai halted many flights yesterday morning, following the cancellation of more than 200 departures the previous day, which affected nearly 30,000 passengers.But the storm soon passed and flights resumed in the afternoon, local media said, and there were no reports of major road blockages in the city.Muifa also skirted along South Korea’s southern resort island of Jeju, Yonhap news agency said, with its strong winds downing trees and electricity poles, leaving thousands of homes without power. Jeju’s airport cancelled most flights, but there were no immediate reports of casualties. Agencies