Officials closed the gates of the Forbidden City due to heavy rain in Beijing on Sunday. | REUTERS

China’s central government told local officials in the capital and other areas of the north to be prepared to deal with floods amid heavy rain brought on by remnants of Typhoon Doksuri.

Flood control officials upgraded their emergency response order to level two, the second highest in their four-tier system, for Beijing and Tianjin and the provinces of Hebei, Shanxi and Henan on Sunday. e situation in those regions was "extremely severe and complex” due to the intensity of the rain and the poor discharge capability of rivers in northern China, the Ministry of Emergency Management said in a statement.

Capital International Airport said on social media that 52 flights were canceled as of 3 p.m. Sunday, while Tianjin’s airport canceled 42 flights as of 10 a.m., China Central Television reported. Some trains running between Beijing and Guangzhou were briefly delayed because sections of the line were being checked due to the heavy rain, rail authorities said.

Earlier in the day, national weather officials renewed their highest alert for rain in Beijing and Tianjin and areas of Henan, Shanxi and Shandong, saying they expected heavy precipitation into Monday. Rainfall in those regions was expected to ease "noticeably” from Tuesday, they said.

Residents of China’s capital are especially wary of heavy summer rains after flash flooding in July 2012 killed 79 people. Beijing announced plans to improve drainage capacity after the disaster.

Officials in Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei province, arranged the evacuations of some 20,600 people due to heavy rain, the official Xinhua News Agency reported, without mentioning casualties or economic losses.