South China's Hainan Province has evacuated more than 40,000 people as the eighth typhoon of 2015, Kujira, is expected to land in southern China on Monday night.

More than 20,000 fishing boats in the province were called back to harbor. All elementary and high schools in the provincial capital of Haikou will be closed on Tuesday, according to the local government.

The National Meteorological Center on Sunday afternoon issued a blue alert, the lowest level in its four-tier warning system, for Typhoon Kujira.

Kujira will be the first typhoon to hit China this year. It formed in the South China Sea on Sunday, and is moving at about 10 kilometers per hour.