| BEIJING - FIFTY-SIX Chinese fishermen were missing on Friday as one of the earliest typhoons to hit the region in six decades barrelled down on the southern island of Hainan, state media reported. Authorities ordered tens of thousands of fishing boats back to port and evacuated about 120,000 people from fish farms and low-lying coastal areas of Hainan as Typhoon Neoguri approached, the Xinhua news agency said. The typhoon was expected to make landfall on the island province on Friday night or Saturday morning, Xinhua said. Provincial authorities sent a rescue team for 56 fishermen on three boats who had sought shelter at a reef near the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea, according to the agency. Contact with the fishermen was lost on Thursday evening, according to the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters. No typhoon has hit China this early in the season for six decades, Xinhua said. Neoguri, which has a radius of 300km, could unleash up to 180mm of rain on Hainan, Xinhua said. Rail services carried on ferries across the strait between Hainan and the mainland were suspended on Friday morning due to strong gales brought by Neoguri, it said. The Hainan provincial flood control headquarters recalled about 21,800 fishing boats on Thursday, it added. Apart from Hainan, the government has also warned Guangdong province and the Guangxi region in the south, as well as Fujian province in the south-east to prepare for Neoguri. Neoguri became a tropical cyclone on April 15 in the South China Sea, and strengthened into a typhoon the next day, Xinhua said. -- AFP | 
