On Monday, however, southern areas had a rare rain-free day, according to the National Meteorological Center. Before that, the center had issued new alerts for torrential rains for 40 consecutive days starting June 2. Rain will return to the region, however, from Tuesday to Thursday.

At 8 am on Monday, the level of Poyang Lake, China's largest freshwater lake, reached 22.6 meters. On Sunday, it had surpassed its historic high of 22.52 meters, recorded during the devastating floods of 1998, Jiangxi provincial authorities said. The lake is connected to the Yangtze River water system.

"Though some hydrological stations in Poyang reported higher water levels compared with records in 1998, water levels in major hydrological stations in middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze are currently below those of that year," Ye said.

Vice-Minister of Emergency Management Zheng Guoguang said that even though rainfall in the Yangtze Basin has been 51 percent above normal this year, "the likelihood is not great" that the type of prolonged, concentrated precipitation that happened in 1998 will occur.

Also, with construction of more water conservancy projects and an improved system to handle floodwaters, "we have had much stronger flood control capability", he said.