China's National Meteorological Center (NMC) on Thursday maintained its orange alert for Typhoon Soulik, the second-highest level on its four-tier typhoon warning system.

Soulik is moving toward sea waters east of Taiwan at 20 km per hour, and it is expected to hit or pass the waters off Taiwan early Saturday morning, said the NMC.

Then, it will head toward waters off the mainland's coastal provinces of Zhejiang and Fujian.

Influenced by Soulik, scale 8-10 winds will sweep waters east of Taiwan and the southeastern part of the East China Sea from 8 am on Thursday to 8 am on Friday.

Areas directly hit by Soulik will experience extremely strong winds ranging from scale 15-17, said the NMC.

The NMC urged more preventive and emergency response measures, such as warning ships to return to port.

China's marine forecasting authority has issued a red wave warning for Soulik, the highest in its four-tire color-coded warning system for sea waves.