The fire appeared to have died down in the early hours of Wednesday, Xinhua said, but by the afternoon winds gusting up to 60 km per hour had revived the blaze.

Firefighters had remained in the area but forecasts for continuing strong winds would threaten their efforts to bring the fire under control, Xinhua said.

In 1987, a fire in the heavily forested mountain range killed at least 200 people and destroyed some 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres) of timberland in three weeks. It was China's worst blaze in decades.