China evacuated more than 160 Chinese nationals from Iraq when war broke out in 2003.

In Guangzhou, the local government has vowed to help reunite evacuees with their relatives and provide support services.

A Solomon Islander of Chinese descent and her child prepare to board a chartered flight provided by Beijing out of the troubled Solomon Islands after losing all their possessions in the recent violence in Honiara April 23, 2006. [Reuters]

Guangdong would welcome the evacuees, many of whom had lost their identity cards and are worried about their children's education, said Lu Weixiong, head of the provincial office of overseas Chinese affairs.

Most of the group are emigrants from the province or descendants of Guangdong people, so the priority is to help them contact family members or relatives, said Lu.

Lu said evacuees could return to the Solomon Islands at any time after the situation there stabilized.

Thirteen Guangdong natives flew to Guangzhou and two Chinese nationals to Shanghai on Sunday night with the assistance of the Chinese Consulate in Sydney.

Of the 13 people, four are from Guangzhou and the others from Jiangmen city; and most of them women and children. The oldest is 47, and the youngest is only five months, said Lu.

He said most of the more than 1,000 Chinese in Solomon Islands left China 20 or 30 years ago.

"We spent three days travelling from the Solomon Islands to Guangzhou, but it felt like three years," said Hu Meili, a 27-year-old woman.