A strong 6.0-magnitude earthquake hit southwest China's mountainous Yunnan province late Tuesday, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said.
The quake struck at the shallow depth of 10 kilometres (6.3 miles) at 9.49 pm (1349 GMT) around 158 kilometres (98 miles) north of the city of Jinghong, close to China's borders with Myanmar and Laos.
The survey had earlier given a lower magnitude reading of 5.8 and a shallower depth of five kilometres.
Yunnan, a remote province, is acutely vulnerable to earthquakes. The region sees frequent seismic activity from the collision of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates, which form the vast Himalaya mountain range.
In August, a 6.1-magnitude struck killing more than 600 people. At least 3,143 people were injured, while more than 80,000 homes were fully or partially destroyed.
China's neighbouring Sichuan province was struck by a particularly brutal quake in 2008 in which more than 80,000 victims perished.