Dujuan had earlier battered Taiwan, leaving at least two feared dead and a trail of destruction in its wake.

As Dujuan approached, the Hong Kong Observatory briefly raised the number nine signal -- the second-highest storm warning -- but it reinstated the lower number eight signal shortly after 10:00 pm (1400 GMT) as the typhoon appeared to shift to the north of the territory.

"The typhoon brushed past Hong Kong, directly hitting neighbouring Shenzhen," an observatory spokesman said late Tuesday, adding that Dujuan was moving northwest across the Pearl River Delta.

Typhoon Dujuan arrived at Gangkou town, Huidong county, in Guangdong province, around 7:50 pm, the Chinese news agency Xinhua reported.

The Guangdong Provincial Meteorological Observatory said the maximum wind force was monitored at 144 kilometres (89 miles) per hour, Xinhua reported.

At 11:00 pm Dujuan was was about 50 kilometers (31 miles) west-northwest of Hong Kong and forecast to move west at about 35 kilometers per hour.

"Typhoon Dujuan is moving away from Hong Kong," the observatory said, adding that a number three signal could be issued in the early morning with the storm's passing.

Earlier in the day the typhoon had forced the closure of schools, shops, businesses and financial markets in Hong Kong as authorities hoisted the number eight signal.

Strong winds that preceded the typhoon knocked down at least 20 trees, officials said, as large waves crashed into the coastline. Local media reported scattered power outages in the northern New Territories.

There had also been some minor flooding and two minor landslides, but there were no reports of injuries, the government said.

At the Hong Kong International Airport, the typhoon caused the cancellation of 151 flights while 115 had been delayed as of 10:00 pm, the Airport Authority said.

Authorities urged people to go home when the signal eight was first raised in the early afternoon, sending thousands of people streaming out of their offices to catch last-minute ferries or buses before public transport was suspended.

Throngs of schoolchildren packed fast food restaurants and huddled under umbrellas at bus stops as they waited to get home while workers hastily took down advertising signs and lashed down bamboo scaffolding.

But by nightfall the city was all but deserted, with shops fastened shut, ferries suspended and only limited bus and rail services in operation in lashing rain.

The government said it had opened 27 temporary shelters, to which more than 120 people had been admitted by early evening.

A Hong Kong Observatory spokesman said the typhoon was unusual in that it appeared to have two eyes, one about 20 kilometres in diameter and the other 100 kilometres.

Hong Kong regularly suffers torrential rain and flooding from typhoons that pass by the territory each year, although direct hits are rare.

The most devastating in Hong Kong's recorded history was the "Great Typhoon" of September 1937, which sank thousands of junks and cargo boats and killed more than 10,000 people.

One of the worst in recent history was Typhoon Wanda in 1962, which claimed more than 130 lives, left dozens more missing and wrecked around 1,000 boats and ships.

Typhoon Dajuan brushed southern Taiwan overnight leaving more than 500,000 homes without electricity at one point and severely interrupting road, rail and air links.

One man drowned off the island of Penghu, while another person was missing after being washed away by flood waters in mountainous Taitung county.

Torrential rains continued to batter southeastern and southern Taiwan as well as the mountainous areas in northern, central and northeastern parts of the island, the Central Weather Bureau said Tuesday.

The one fatality was identified as 54 year-old Lin Tze-rong, while the missing person was named as 23 year-old student Yen Min-ju, who was swept away by flood water while conducting research in a mountainous area of eastern Taitung County.

TERRA.WIRE