More than 26,000 fishing boats in southern-most China's Hainan Province have returned to port as the island braces for tropical storm Nock-Ten.

Fishing boats are seen anchored at a harbor in Sanya, south China's Hainan Province, July 28, 2011.?[Xinhua]

The Hainan provincial government said in a statement that it has ordered all fishing boats to return to port.

The government has also ordered authorities to ensure the safety of all reservoirs and to evacuate people living in low-lying regions and downstream of dangerous reservoirs.

Also, shipping services across the Qiongzhou Strait, which seperates Guangdong Province from the island, will be suspended as of Friday, according to Hainan's maritime affairs bureau.

Authorities in Guangdong Province have also ordered fishing ships off its southwestern coasts to return to port and emergency rescue workers to prepare to conduct disaster relief efforts.

Nock-Ten, which has strenghened to a severe tropical strom and may strenghen further into a typhoon, is expected to make landfall over the coastal regions from Sanya in Hainan to Zhanjiang in Guangdong, according to the National Meteorological Center.

Nock-Ten, which has killed at least 31 people in the Philippines, is the eighth storm and the most powerful one to hit China so far this year.

As of 5 p.m. Thursday, the storms' center was 440 km southeast off Hainan's Wenchang City, packing winds up to 90 km per hour, the National Meteorological Center said.

The storm will continue to move northwestward at a speed of 15 to 20 km per hour, it said.

It is forecast to bring heavy downpours to some coastal regions in Hainan and Guangdong over the next three days.