China Southern Airlines sources told Xinhua that the plane, CZ680, traveling from Istanbul to Beijing via Urumqi, made a forced landing in Gansu Zhongchuan Airport in Gansu's capital of Lanzhou, hours after take-off from Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

The Boeing 757 was scheduled to take off from Urumqi at 2:30 pm and land in Beijing at 5:50 pm, according to the flight's timetable.

Sources with the airport and the local provincial government said the plane made its forced landing in Gansu at around 5:30 pm.

All the 196 onboard, including 186 passengers and 10 crew members, were evacuated by 5:45 pm.

Officials with the local public security bureau are handling the incident.

All the luggage on the plane went through security check at the parking apron at Gansu Zhongchuan airport.

No other flights at Zhongchuan airport have been disrupted.

An Internet user who claimed to be one of the passengers on the plane said she was not given any explanation before or after the landing.

"Without the maps app on my mobile phone, I would not even have known where I was," said Baimifan at Sina Weibo, China's Twitter-like microblogging website.

She was identified as a designer with Puma by the website.