China has evacuated hundreds of thousands of people living in the path of a typhoon which was forecast on Sunday to lash the east coast as it heads towards Shanghai, state media said.

Typhoon Khanun, which spared the island of Taiwan on Saturday, would unleash its full force between coastal Cangnan and Dinghai counties in Zhejiang province.

The port of Ningbo was directly in its path, according to Tropical Storm Risk Web typhoon tracker.

"More than 305,000 residents living in areas to be endangered by Khanun have been relocated to safe places, and over 31,000 ships and boats were called back to harbour," Xinhua quoted the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters as saying.

Authorities in Shanghai, China's financial centre north of Zhejiang, had issued the yellow warning signal, demanding that more than 100,000 people working outdoors or living in sheds and other temporary housing evacuate to safety.

"Heavy rainstorms will strike Shanghai Sunday and Monday, Xinhua said.

Typhoon Matsa swept up China's east coast at the beginning of August, killing three people and forcing more than a million to flee their homes.

At the beginning of this month, Typhoon Talim killed up to 56 people in eastern China after unleashing torrential rains and triggering floods and landslides.

Typhoons, known as hurricanes in the West, gather strength from warm sea water and tend to dissipate after making landfall.

They frequently hit Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, Hong Kong and southern China during a season that lasts from early summer to late autumn.

PHOTO CAPTION

Waves caused by Typhoon Khanun hit the docks at Wenling, east China's Zhejiang Province, September 11, 2005. (REUTERS)