JI'AN, Jilin - Muifa, the ninth tropical storm to affect China this year, has downgraded to a depression, but it continued to bring rain to Northeast China Tuesday morning.

According to the website of the Central Meteorological Station, the storm weakened to a depression at about 2 am in Northeast China's Liaoning province, after making landfall in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

It was moving northeast at a speed of 30 km per hour, said Ge Jianshan, vice head of the flood control and drought relief office of the Ji'an city in Jilin province.

Downpours had given way to showers in Ji'an Tuesday morning, while ships resumed services for tourists on the Yalu River which borders the DPRK.

However, the Central Meteorological Station forecasted that from Tuesday to Wednesday morning, Muifa would still bring rain to northeast China and gales off the coast of Liaoning. It warned local governments to be on alert for geographical disasters.

Muifa swirled into the East China Sea on Friday morning and weakened to a tropical storm on Sunday. As of 4 pm Monday, the storm had toppled more than 600 houses and damaged 4,800 others, causing direct economic losses of about 3.1 billion yuan ($480 million).