A total of 274,300 people had been evacuated by Sunday afternoon in southeast China's Fujian Province as a strong typhoon was approaching, said the provincial flood control headquarters.

About 52,301 fishing boats had also returned to harbor as of 6:00 PM on Sunday. Disaster relief personnel had been helping people on fishing vessels get on shore, said Yang Zhiying, head of the flood control headquarters in Fujian.

Typhoon Fung Wong, the eighth tropical storm of this year, turned into a strong typhoon at 8:00 PM. Its eye was monitored at the sea about 210 kilometers to the east of Taitung County in Taiwan, according to the provincial observatory.

It moved westward and was forecast to land Taiwan on Sunday night or Monday morning.

The observatory monitored that the typhoon would make another landfall in Fujian on Monday night or Tuesday morning, sweeping the province before moving up inland to east Jiangxi Province.

Influenced by Typhoon Fung Wong, Fujian was hit by winds up to force 8 to 11 in the morning. Its observatory forecast that rainstorm would continue on Monday in the province, which sits on the west of the Taiwan Straits.

From Monday night to Tuesday, winds are expected to reach force 7 to 9 in the coastal cities of Fujian. Rainstorms or torrential rainstorms are forecast in the cities of Ningde, Fuzhou, Putian and Quanzhou.

"The continuous heavy rain is likely to trigger flood or other secondary disasters," Yang said.

(Xinhua News Agency July 28, 2008)