Employers across much of China have been ordered to limit outdoor work due to scorching temperatures as the country struggles with heat, flooding and drought.
Rescuers are looking for survivors of a landslide on Saturday that buried a road construction site and killed at least one person with seven others missing in the central city of Yichang in Hubei province.
Five people were injured in the incident, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
Elsewhere, the weather agency issued an orange alert, its second-highest-level warning, for heat across southern China and much of the north and north-east.
Temperatures above 40C were forecast in Beijing, the capital, and across central China to the south-eastern coast.
Heat above 37C to 39C was forecast in parts of populous Sichuan province in the south-west.
Elsewhere, temperatures above 35C were expected in most of northern China, the rest of Sichuan and much of the south.
The orange alert requires employers to make outdoor work as brief as possible. Despite that, delivery workers for restaurants and online retailers are still working.
Two heat-related deaths were reported earlier in Beijing. A tour guide collapsed last weekend at the Summer Palace, an imperial-era garden. A woman died last month from heat stroke.
The agriculture ministry warned that persistent hot weather could damage rice harvests. They said local authorities should ensure rice paddies have adequate water to prevent premature ripening of the crop.
Elsewhere, tens of thousands of people who were driven out of their homes by flooding have moved to shelters in northern, central and south-eastern China.
Some areas including the populous Hebei province, which surrounds Beijing, issued a red alert on Sunday, the highest-level temperature warning.
That requires employers to stop outdoor work and orders local authorities to make preparations to protect the public.
Residents of some cities have moved into underground air raid shelters for relief from the heat.
Earth’s average temperature set a new unofficial record high on Thursday, the third such milestone in the hottest week on record.
