New Delhi, July 9 -- China, Taiwan, and Japan are preparing for what could become one of the most devastating tropical storms to hit the region in years as Super Typhoon Bavi moves steadily across the western Pacific. Spanning nearly 1,000 kilometres, the massive weather system is carrying sustained winds of close to 200 km/h.

Satellite observations indicate that Bavi stretches across around 940,000 square kilometres, making it almost nine times the size of China's Zhejiang province and roughly 850 times larger than Hong Kong by land area.

According to China's National Meteorological Centre, the typhoon is expected to pass close to northern Taiwan before making landfall in Fujian province on July 11.

Weather officials in Taiwan say sto...