Soulik, the strongest typhoon to hit the Chinese mainland this year, battered most of Fujian province over the weekend, including the island county of Pingtan.

The typhoon made landfall on the Huangqi Peninsula in Lianjiang county at 4 pm on Saturday with torrential rains and gales, which brought down 990 houses, affecting 722,400 local residents and forcing 489,800 people to evacuate. The direct economic loss is expected to reach 1.74 billion yuan ($284 million).

In Pingtan alone, the urban district reported 102.1 mm of precipitation in 6 hours, an amount which - for the first time this year - was classified as a downpour. The area near Nianggong dock experienced gales of up to force 13, reaching a speed of 37.2 meters per second, the strongest ever recorded in that area.

As many as 177,800 people and 9.68 million square meters of cropland were affected. About 22 houses were toppled by gales and 14,200 people were evacuated to safer locations, and the county's direct economic loss was expected to reach 43 million yuan.

But Pingtan was spared further damage or loss of life as the typhoon battered other parts of the province on Sunday. Everything returned to normal in Pingtan on Sunday, as statistics from the local meteorological bureau show that no rains fell in downtown Pingtan on Sunday, and it only drizzled in some towns under its administration. People gathered on the beach, the Taiwan food court reopened after a three-day break, and all the scenic spots resumed business after cleanup efforts.

Pingtan is situated on the eastern coast of Fujian, so the clout of Soulik weakened as it moved westwards inland, said one expert, adding that it would be cloudy in the county in the next few days.

Edited by Chen Zhilin and Niva Whyman