The houses collapsed over four days of continuous rain in Shaanxi province, the Xinhua news agency reported.

In one case, a farmer lost his wife and two sons when his home collapsed Saturday.

In a belated attempt to prevent further disasters, provincial officials fanned out across the countryside to look for buildings under threat of imminent collapse, the news agency said.

Meanwhile, 440 workers at a construction site in Tangshan city, in north China's Hebei province, were trapped but later saved when a heavy storm caused seawater to engulf vast stretches of land along the coastline, Xinhua said.

Large parts of Hebei were struck by the storm, and 27 villages near the ocean were flooded, affecting more than 100,000 people, it reported.

Precipitation which accompanied the gale was measured at 200 mm (eight inches) in some parts of Hebei, causing serious disruption of local traffic and damaging telecommunication facilities, the agency said.

TERRA.WIRE