Swathes of the country have been hit by torrential downpours and flooding, killing over 30 people and forcing tens of thousands to be evacuated.

On the outskirts of China's vast capital, where 80,000 have left their homes and over 100 villages have lost power, the mountainous district of Miyun was among the hardest hit.

In flooded streets in the town of Taishitun, just over 100 kilometres (61 miles) northeast of Beijing's bustling city centre, weary locals worked desperately to retrieve what belongings they could find.

"It's the kind of flood seen once in a hundred years," Pang, a 52-year-old who gave only his surname, told AFP.

He motioned towards a refrigerator lying on its side, carried by a rush of water from his house 500 metres upstream when the flooding hit on Monday.

"Previous years have never been like this," he said.

A truck-mounted crane struggled to hoist an SUV out of the wreckage, placing it on the back of another large vehicle waiting to haul it away as its owner looked on, shaking his head.

Elsewhere in the village, residents walked past ruined cars in metres-high piles.

An office nearby lay in disarray, brown mud covering every surface.

A local woman surnamed Zhao recounted to AFP that her house was flooded early on Monday morning.

"It was a mess, the mud was this thick," 52-year-old Zhao said, gesturing with her hand.

"My mother and I shovelled it, but we couldn't get it out.

"We didn't know what to do so we just picked up some clothes and took shelter in a high place," she added.

When they got home, she said "the refrigerator, washing machine and other things in the kitchen were all soaked".

"There was also this thick mud all over the kitchen."

Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered officials to plan for worst-case scenarios and rush the relocation of residents of flood-threatened areas.

And authorities warn the rains could continue into Wednesday.

At a village called Xinanzhuang visited by AFP journalists around midday, murky water submerged homes, cars and a road leading onto a highway.

A local man in his sixties said that he had never seen water levels so high.