Typhoon Bebinca landed early Monday morning in the city's eastern coastal area, with wind speeds of up to 151 kilometers per hour, state media said.
According to TRT, it is the strongest storm to hit Shanghai since Typhoon Gloria in 1949, state broadcaster CCTV said shortly after Bebinca made landfall.
Many businesses were already closed for the Mid-Autumn Festival public holiday, and the city's 25 million residents have been advised to avoid leaving their homes.
Shanghai's flood control headquarters told CCTV they had already received dozens of reports of incidents related to the typhoon — mostly fallen trees and billboards.
An AFP reporter saw that an uprooted tree completely blocked one road in the city center.
All flights at Shanghai's two main airports are grounded, and ferry services and some trains have been suspended.
Authorities said that nine thousand residents have been evacuated from Chongming District, an island at the mouth of the Yangtze River.
Bebinca has also passed through Japan and the central and southern Philippines, where falling trees killed six people.
CCTV said Bebinca was expected to move northwest, causing heavy rain and high winds in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui provinces.
China is the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, which scientists say are driving climate change and making extreme weather more frequent and intense.
SD/