The authorities in southern China have evacuated more than 100,000 people from their homes as Typhoon Hagupit hit.
The weather system killed at least eight people in the Philippines, and closed schools in Hong Kong.
As it headed towards Guangdong province in southern China, the area was put on the highest level alert.
Authorities in Vietnam prepared to evacuate residents of coastal areas as it appeared the typhoon was heading south.
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Typhoon signals were lowered from Number 8 to Number 3 on Wednesday morning allowing businesses and schools to reopen.
The typhoon made landfall in Guangdong province, which neighbours Hong Kong, just after dawn on Wednesday, with winds of 172 km/h (106 mph), Xinhua news agency reported.
It is predicted to hit Guangxi province, west of Guangdong, and the island of Hainan.
More than 50,000 ships and fishing vessels were called back to port and torrential rain and widespread flooding is forecast in China.
Schools and kindergartens in southern China were ordered to close, and flights were likely to be cancelled or diverted, officials said.
Streets had emptied, and some shops and business were closed.
Landslide risks
The typhoon is expected bring heavy rain to Vietnam's north and could unleash major flooding, that country's weather centre reported.
Officials were told to prepare stockpiles of food and medicine for areas likely to be isolated by floods.
The Vietnamese government warned that with floods came the risk of landslides in northern coastal and mountainous provinces.
Landslides and flooding in the Philippines continues to trap at least 14 goldminers underground.
Persistent rain and a shortage of oxygen tanks are hampering rescue efforts, officials said, as hopes fade of any survivors being found.
"We're doing our best to get to the trapped miners," said Mario Godio, mayor of a gold mining town in Benguet province in the northern Philippines.
Early this month, 20 people were killed and about two dozen were injured when monsoon rains loosened soil and buried a mining village in the southern Philippines, forcing officials to close down two villages.
Reports were emerging that another storm was gathering strength east of the Philippines and could follow a similar route to that of Typhoon Hagupit.
(BBC)
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