BEIJING - Residents in picturesque Shichahai woke on Wednesday morning to find heavy rain and winds had brought down some 100 trees, damaging cars and houses.

Shichahai, which is located northeast of the Forbidden City and renowned for its preservation of ancient buildings and landscapes, was among the worst hit areas during the violent storm in the capital on Tuesday night.

Willow trees that used to decorate the landscape were uprooted and forced to the ground or into the river in busy streets along the riverbank.

Piles of twigs and branches were scattered along the roadside, which residents said were left by workers from the landscape and forestry bureau who cleared the roads.

As of Wednesday afternoon, trees could still be seen on top of cars and houses, raising more safety concerns as the city was expecting more rain and wind.

"I made numerous phone calls and told them a tree was leaning against my house, but all the answer I was given was that they were too busy to take care of it," said Wang Yong, whose house was hit by a tree.

Fallen trees also posed threats to historic sites in the area. One tree fell into a compound that used to belong to a son-in-law of an emperor from the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

"We are still waiting for the landscape and forestry bureau to remove the tree so we can determine the scale of loss," said the manager of the company in charge of the historic site who declined to give his name.

Residents said they had never seen so many trees uprooted by strong winds.

"My neighbor, who is almost 90 years old, told me he had never seen trees pulled out like this," said Lu Huidong.

The heaviest rain in 13 years hit the city from 9 pm on Tuesday to 3 am on Wednesday, with winds reaching 117 km/h - 10 on the Beaufort scale. Hundreds of trees were brought down in downtown areas, mostly in Chaoyang, Haidian, Dongcheng and Xicheng districts.

Yu Shunli, a botanical expert from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said the felling of so many trees in Shichahai was possibly caused by the heavy rain that loosened the soil and their proximity to the river.

"Or possibly because the trees were too old. Older trees fall more easily and are more susceptible to being weakened by insects," he said.

The city's bureau of landscape and forestry said it is yet to gather an exact figure for how many trees fell, although Beijing Evening News put it at 361. The paper also reported 32 cars and 51 houses had been hit by fallen trees.

Yang Zhihua, an official from the bureau, told China Daily that the measures it had taken to reinforce trees in the city could only withstand winds of 7 or 8 on the Beaufort scale.

"With the rapid urban construction in the city, trees along the streets generally grow quicker in the crown and slower in the roots," he said. "We reinforced some of the trees, but we could not cover all of them."

Yang said the bureau will determine the scale of damage of all the fallen trees and then decide whether to replace them with new ones or reinforce them to prevent further accidents.

Wu Wencong contributed to this story.