A race is underway to build waterways to drain overflowing reservoirs in southern China. Thousands have now been evacuated following torrential rains that triggered flash floods on Wednesday.

Heavy rain pelted the Yangtze River basin this week - hitting areas of Sichuan, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Anhui provinces.

In the town of Xiaohe in Yunnan province, the death toll climbed to 13 following a landslide that swept through town before dawn on Tuesday.

Two landslides killed 14 in neighboring Sichuan province, while in Hunan province, ten people including four young children died in two separate slides this week.

Elsewhere, the level of a reservoir near the far western city of Golmud began to fall after hundreds of workers and soldiers completed a diversion channel.

More than 10-thousand residents were evacuated as soldiers carried sandbags and rocks and used bulldozers to help build the emergency channel.

Usually prone to drought, Qinghai has seen increasingly heavy rainfalls in recent years. This year's rains came as snow melted in the surrounding mountains. Dozens of reservoirs swelled beyond their warning levels.

In the eastern province of Anhui, workers were draining overflowing reservoirs and repairing damaged dykes. About 70 percent of the reservoirs in Chizhou city have exceeded warning levels due to torrential rains.

Since the beginning of July, flooding across China has killed 107 people, with 59 missing and nearly a million people evacuated from their homes. More rain was forecast for the affected regions through Thursday.

China experiences annual flooding but this year's rains have been particularly devastating. The Ministry of Civil Affairs says storms this month have, so far, caused economic losses of 19.8 billion yuan.

Typhoon Conson, likely the first to hit China this year, is expected to make landfall in southern Guangdong Province Thursday or Friday. It's expected to bring heavy rain to parts of southern China.