In South China's province of Hainan, rain that pounded the island for more than a week has thankfully eased quite a bit. But as locals try to get their lives back to normal, many still face challenges as Liao Liang explains.

Thousands of people who fled their homes have begun to return and clean up. In the commercial district of Wenchang city, floods caused great losses for shopkeepers.

Mr. Feng and his wife managed to salvage some of their stock, but the majority of the goods were washed away or damaged.

Shopkeeper Mr Feng said, "The floods came too fast and we had no time to move our goods. We've lived on simple food during the past few days. The floods just washed our stuff away."

But they have help from the government. Provincial officials have been visiting flood stricken areas to deal with the aftermath. Now that the flooding has receded, they can see what still needs to be done.

Wei Liucheng, secretary of CPC Hainan Committee, said, "As the rains ease, the first phase of disaster relief operation has been completed. Cleaning-up the affected regions, sanitation and epidemic prevention, resettlement of displaced people will be our next tasks, and these are tough jobs."

Provincial authorities have dispatched 22 medical teams and 9 epidemic control teams to the flooded areas.

Meteorological authorities have forecast that the extreme heavy rain on the island will end by Monday.