China's first Boeing 787 arrived in the country on Sunday, state-run media said, less than two weeks after Beijing regulators approved the aircraft, which had faced safety problems.

The high-tech Dreamliners were cleared to return to service worldwide in April after all 50 were grounded in mid-January following two overheated battery incidents.

The plane delivered to China Southern Airlines, one of the country's industry leaders, "has been installed with improved batteries that had passed various tests", China Radio International reported on its website.

"The 787 arrived Sunday in Guangzhou," a southern city where the company is headquartered, it said.

China Southern Airlines and Hainan Airlines have each ordered 10 of the planes, while Air China has ordered 15.

The president and chief executive of Boeing Commercial Airlines, Ray Conner, called the delivery of the first plane a "significant new milestone in the strengthening partnership between Boeing and China".

Regulators grounded the 787 after a battery fire on one aircraft parked at a US airport and a smouldering battery on another caused smoke and fumes, forcing an emergency landing.

US officials in April cleared the planes to fly following alterations to the plane's lithium-ion batteries.

The first Dreamliner resumed flights later that month and since then more than half of all of the aircraft have been put back into service.