China's second typhoon in a week landed on the coast of the country's southeastern Guangdong Province on Thursday, bringing strong winds and heavy rains.

Chanthu was upgraded from a tropical storm after gathering strength at sea. It grounded flights and disrupted shipping ahead of its arrival in Guangdong and the tropical island of Hainan.

In Guangdong, over 1,000 fishing boats were locked in the port of Bohe, as rain and wind lashed the region at noon local time, bringing down trees and sending people running for cover.

The region is expected to feel the full force of the storm later in the day.

Less than a week ago, Typhoon Conson brushed Hainan Island, killing two on its way to Vietnam.

At least 701 people have died since the start of the year as a result of torrential rains which have swept through large parts of southern and central China. Officials say another 347 people are still missing.

A landslide in the northern province of Shaanxi buried 29 people in the village of Qiyan on Sunday.

By Thursday, seven bodies had been found, and 22 were still missing.

In Liaoning Province, a northeastern region that rarely sees flooding; some areas have seen the heaviest rain in decades.

The city of Xinmin has seen the most rain since 1951, leaving locals no option but to wade through flooded streets. The flooding caused the city's supply of fresh water to be stopped over contamination fears, forcing residents to line up in the street with buckets.

Near the city of Changchun in neighboring Jilin Province, flooding in rural areas threatened seven villages.

The scale of the devastation across China, with more rain forecast, has raised fears of another mass disaster on the scale of the 1998 Yangtze River floods, when more than 4,000 people died, though the regime says it is now much better prepared.