China's coastal provinces of Guangdong and Fujian have started cleanup efforts and resumed transportation and traffic services as Typhoon Noul drifts away.
Typhoon Noul, the 12th typhoon of the year, made landfall in south China's Guangdong Province on Sunday morning with maximum winds of Force 14 near its center. It has since weakened to a tropical storm.
In Shanwei City of Guangdong, strong winds and torrential rain lashed on Saturday night, toppling trees in urban areas. Local firefighters cleared the fallen trees to reopen blocked roads and restore traffic.
Daoshan Village in Haifeng County of the city experienced widespread waterlogging, with water levels rising to 1 meter in some areas, trapping many residents in their homes.
In response, local fire and rescue forces quickly deployed teams, using rubber boats to navigate the flooded streets and rescue the trapped people, safely evacuating 27 residents.
As Noul weakens, cities along the coast of southeast China's Fujian Province began to resume maritime operations. Xiamen Maritime Safety Administration downgraded its typhoon response from Level III to Level IV at 08:00 on Sunday.
China has a four-tier emergency response system, with Level I being the most severe response.
Passenger routes in Xiamen City have resumed in batches, and merchant ships have been cleared to enter the port for berthing, loading and unloading operations.
"We have shifted from defending against typhoons to guaranteeing the safety of work and production resumption on waterways, prioritizing the smooth flow of passengers and key essential goods. At the same time, we have strengthened the maintenance of navigation order on waterways to avoid risks such as waterway congestion and collisions between merchant and fishing vessels, as a large number of ships may depart port around the same time," said Zou Sheng, deputy director of the Command Center at the Xiamen Maritime Safety Administration.
As Noul moves away, Guangzhou South Railway Station in Guangzhou resumed train services on Sunday to various destinations including Zhuhai, Zhanjiang, Nanning, Chengdu, and Chongqing.
The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge in south China also resumed traffic and customs clearance at 12:40 on the same day.
China's coastal provinces resume transportation as Typhoon Noul moves away
For more than 1,000 years, Jingdezhen, the "porcelain capital" in east China's Jiangxi Province, has shaped how the world understands porcelain, with even discarded shards preserving a living tradition.
Weng Yanjun, president of the Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Institute, reflected on the scale and challenge behind Jingdezhen's historic creations.
"When I look at this gigantic dragon jar, I couldn't help going back to 600 years ago, when the emperor had this order to create something bigger than ever before. The failure rate of the dragon jar is so high. It could be nine out of 10. Even making failure products like this takes courage, takes techniques and takes commitment," said Weng.
Those failed attempts, once discarded, now preserve the evidence of how Jingdezhen pursued perfection.
For more than 1,000 years, Jingdezhen's porcelain industry has endured through the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties (960-1911). What has survived is not only its porcelain, but also a living heritage of raw materials, workshops, kilns and specialized craftsmanship.
Those firings produced masterpieces as well as failures, with the discarded pieces forming another kind of archive.
At the Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Institute, Weng told archaeology students that fragmented specimens sometimes provide more information than complete artifacts.
Weng leads the development of the world's first Ancient Ceramics Gene Bank, which extracts and catalogs the defining characteristics of each ceramic shard.
"For our institute alone, we have excavated more than 20 million pieces of shards for the past over 1,200 years. Among those shards, we do sorting, we do restoration, and we do scientific tests. And then we find, wow, a small shard can tell us much more information than even a whole piece," said Weng.
Using a standardized sample library and unified data framework, the project records each piece's shape, decoration, body material, glaze, color, firing marks and inscriptions, creating a valuable resource for authentication and research around the world.
"The whole city is a wonderful lab and space range makes Jingdezhen uniquely a wonderful example of how the handicraft ancient industry with porcelain as the focus survived even to today," Weng added.
Jingdezhen once helped establish benchmarks for how porcelain was made. Now, the gene bank is turning fragments into a language that can be read beyond the city. For French artist and researcher Yann Colleu, learning to read that language has also changed the way he creates.
"Since my childhood, my parents had these teapots, tea sets, plates and cups. I was very curious about the pattern, like the meaning, what was behind it? Actually when I discovered in Jingdezhen that it was a bat, because of 'fu' and 'fu' is fortune, but also you have the 'wufu,' like the five blessings. I was like a child with stars in the eyes, discovering the world for the first time," said Colleu, PhD candidate at Jingdezhen Ceramic University.
What once seemed abstract became part of Yann's own visual language. In his work, traditional Jingdezhen motifs and production scenes are reimagined through a contemporary, cross-cultural lens.
"Jingdezhen is a timeless city. The past, the present and even the future are tied together. This is one of illustration of 72 traditional steps developing during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). The difference is, instead of using Chinese characters, I use foreigners. I want to use the past to talk about the present and even the future with Jingdezhen," said Colleu.
The Jingdezhen Handicraft Porcelain Industry Sites were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List on Saturday. The inscription recognizes not just a single kiln or masterpiece, but an entire production system, from its archaeological remains and traditional craftsmanship to its industrial knowledge and global influence.
Porcelain shards preserve Jingdezhen’s timeless legacy
