Hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes as Typhoon Matmo lashed China's southern coast on Sunday, state media reported.

The powerful storm made landfall at around 2.50pm in Guangdong province, with the National Meteorological Centre recording winds of more than 150 kilometres per hour.

Xinhua news agency reported that authorities had evacuated about 197,000 people from their homes on Hainan Island and 150,000 from Guangdong province, as the storm approached.

Public transportation, construction sites and businesses were also shuttered in coastal cities including Haikou, Zhanjiang and Maoming.

The city of Beihai in the south of Guangxi region had also announced it would suspend work, classes and transportation.

Broadcaster CCTV had reported that Matmo had caused sea levels to rise in a port in Maoming on Sunday morning, leading to a "serious" risk of flooding.

The intensity of the typhoon is expected to gradually decrease after making landfall, the meteorological centre said.

But torrential rain and strong winds were expected until Monday in Hainan and parts of Guangdong and Guangxi.

The typhoon arrived in the middle of the eight-day holiday that started with National Day last Wednesday, during which people are expected to make around 2.36 billion trips.

Matmo had also caused flooding in the Philippines last week. (AFP/Reuters)