Typhoon Dujuan slammed into the southern Chinese coastal city of Shenzhen, killing at least 20 people and causing extensive damage to parts of the country's showcase economic development zone, Xinhua News Agency reported Wednesday.

An electricity pole and trees were damaged when Typhoon Dujuan swept through Fuzhou, East China's Fujian Province, September 2, 2003.[newsphoto.com.cn]

The report said the damage was the worst to the region since 1979.

Sixteen of the fatalities were reported when a workers' dormitory collapsed, and at least 20 others were injured in that accident. There were no immediate details on the other deaths or any preliminary damage estimates.

Multiple flights out of Shenzhen airport and nearby Guangzhou, as well as trains out of the city, were canceled, stranding at least 3,000 passengers.

Dujuan also knocked out power and caused explosions at electrical substations.

Shenzhen was a small village on the Pearl River Delta when former leader Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms turned it into a showcase for the country's experiment in reform and development. Today, it is a bustling metropolis of high-rises and international business ventures.

In Hong Kong, businesses, financial markets and schools reopened Wednesday after Dujuan slightly injured 22 people and caused chaos at the territory's airport.

Hong Kong was spared major damage Tuesday as the typhoon passed by the territory and went on to hit the Chinese mainland at Guangdong province.

On Tuesday, Dujuan prompted the closing of all Hong Kong schools and most offices, curtailed stock trading and jammed some phone lines.

At 9 p.m. Tuesday, it was centered about 180 miles east of Nanning, capital of China's Guangxi region. It was moving west at about 19 mph across Guangxi and dumping rains in southern China and the northern part of the South China Sea, the Hong Kong Observatory said.

In Taiwan, the storm caused an estimated US$39.5 million in damage to the island's agriculture, officials said Wednesday.

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