Today's sad news In Beijing China 17 people are killed and 44 are missing.Landslides hit in three mountain villages in the western part of China, on Tuesday morning, killing 17 people and leaving 44 missing, while crews drained the tank filled in another part of the country after torrential rains.

Landslide engulfed the rural communities in three different areas before media said. The worst affected city Xiaohe in Yunnan Province, rescuers searched for 42 people, while another four were killed and 38 wounded, the official newspaper of Yunnan provincial daily said in its report on its website.

In neighboring Sichuan Province, killing 7 people and 1 still missing in the village Yandai while in the village of Sima rescuers recover six bodies and were looking for one person, Xinhua news agency reported.

Meanwhile, the water in the reservoir near the far western city of Golmud began to subside Tuesday after hundreds of workers and soldiers, ready to dig a diversion channel, an official at the Water Bureau of Qinghai Province said. He declined to name as often with Chinese officials.

Reservoir at one point rose nearly four feet above its level of alert, the web site Golmud city government said. Last weekend, about 10 thousand residents were evacuated to safety, as soldiers carry bags of sand, stones and mud and used bulldozers to dig emergency routes, the website said.

Nevertheless, part of Golmud transport and mining center on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau was already under six feet, reported Xinhua.

Typically, drought, Qinghai saw more heavy rains in recent years. rains this year, fell as snow melted in the surrounding mountains. Dozens of tanks increased their levels of warning, said an official from the water bureau.

Rain is expected to sweep through the Yangtze River basin, including Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Sichuan, on Wednesday, the China Meteorological Administration said.

Parts of China experience annual flooding. In early July, torrential rains led to more than 50 deaths and economic losses amounting to 8.9 billion yuan, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.