More than 8,000 cargo ships and boats were stuck on a river in east China in the worst bottleneck in a decade, after water levels rose to a record high due to Typhoon Morakot, state media said Tuesday.
The boat traffic jam on the river that links cities in Zhejiang province to Shanghai — the world's busiest port by total cargo volume — was 40 kilometres (25 miles) long, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
Xinhua quoted Zhou Shiquan of the ports and shipping administration in Huzhou city in Zhejiang as saying the river was closed to ships for nearly two weeks as water levels rose, reaching a record high of 5.4 metres (17.7 feet).
Levels had now started to subside on the river that carries 80 percent of coal used to generate electricity in Zhejiang, Shanghai and neighbouring Jiangsu province.
Typhoon Morakot slammed into China 10 days ago, sweeping through the nation's eastern regions — including Zhejiang and Shanghai — after killing at least 128 people in Taiwan, where it caused the worst flooding in 50 years.
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