China's Rivers (4)

China also has a large number of continental rivers, which either disappear into the desert or flow into inland lakes. They are located mainly in the northwest, and drain one-third of the country’s total landmass. The Tarim River in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is fed by glaciers and snow from the Kunlun Mountains and the Pamir Plateau. It flows for 2,179 kilometers and is China’s longest continental river.

One of China’s major problems is that her rivers are not well distributed. Ninety percent of them are in the south, and many areas in the north suffer from severe water shortage, at least for part of each year. The rivers north of the Huaihe and the Qinling Mountain Range have a large flow in summer, but either dry up or freeze in winter. As a result, navigation and trade between the north and the south were once severely restricted. To solve this problem, the Chinese constructed the Grand Canal, still one of the nation’s major transportation arteries. The canal stretches for more than 1,794 kilometers from Beijing to Hangzhou in the south. It flows through four provinces, and links the Changjiang, Huaihe, Huanghe, Haihe and Qiantang river systems. The canal has provided an important economic link between the north and the south and has now become a major tourist attraction.

Lakes of all sizes are scattered throughout China but are more concentrated on the Middle and Lower Reaches of the Changjiang River Plain and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The lakes on the Middle and Lower Reaches of the Changjiang River Plain have the function of regulating floods, and they are the sources of farmland irrigation, and freshwater aquatic products.

On the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau there are large alpine lakes, most of which are continental saltwater lakes. The Qinghai Lake, covering 4,583 square kilometers, is the largest saltwater lake in China as well as the largest lake in the country.

The largest freshwater lake in the country is the Poyang Lake in Jiangxi Province, covering 3,583 square kilometers.

China's Rivers (3)

Originating at the northern foot of the Bayahar Mountains in Qinghai Province, the Huanghe is the second longest river in China. It traverses Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan and Shandong from west to east before finally draining into the Bohai Gulf near Shandong Province. Its principal tributaries are the Taohe, Huaihe, Wuding, Fenhe, Weihe, Luohe and Qinhe rivers. It flows a total length of 5,464 kilometers and covers a drainage area of 752,400 square kilometers. The middle and lower reaches of the Huanghe are called by anthropologists and archaeologists “the cradle of Chinese civilization.” Many cities in the region such as Luoyang, aifeng and Anyang in Henan Province, Xi’an and Xianyang in Shaanxi Province were capitals of China’s great dynasties. But in spite of all its distinguished history, the Huanghe was long a region plagued with misery. Before 1949, the river was known as “China’s sorrow.” The river is stained a brownish yellow with silt carried from the Loess Plateau. As it passes through Mengjin County in Henan Province, the current slows and the silt is deposited to a depth of 10 centimeters each year on the riverbed. Throughout history, the river has repeatedly burst its banks and changed its course, causing extensive flooding in the surrounding countryside. Today, thanks to major ecological and water conservancy projects, the Huanghe no longer poses such a threat.

The Heilong River ( Black Dragon River) is one of the great rivers of Asia. Much of the northeastern border between China and Russia follows the course of the Heilong River, also known to the Russians as the Amur River. After passing beyond China’s borders, the river flows towards the northeast, ultimately emptying into the Pacific Ocean. It has a total length of 2,965 kilometers and a drainage area of 890,000 square kilometers inside China. Its main tributaries are the Jieya, Songhua and Wusuli rivers.

The Zhujiang River, the fourth longest in China, is the general name for three converging rivers: the Xijiang, Beijiang and Dongjiang rivers. The quantity of its discharge is second only to that of the Changjiang River. The Zhujiang River traverses Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Guangdong, and Jiangxi, emptying into the South China Sea at Modaomen in Guangdong Province. It has a total length of 2,200 kilometers and a drainage area of 452,000 square kilometers.

China's Rivers (2)

The Changjiang is China’s longest river, and the third longest in the world. With the Tuotuo River as its source, it flows a total length of 6,300 kilometers through Qinghai, Tibet, Yunnan, Sichuan, Chongqing, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Anhui, Jiangsu and Shanghai, and finally empties itself into the East China Sea. The total drainage area is more than 1.8 million square kilometers. It is estimated that the mean volume of water discharged at the mouth of the river is 22,000 cubic meters per second, while the sediment deposited at the mouth amounts to about 182 milllion cubic meters annually. The river is fed by about 700 tributaries, chiefly the Yalong, Minjiang, Jialing, Wujiang, Xiangjiang, Hanjiang, Ganjiang, and Huangpu rivers.

The Changjiang River valley, with 24.67 million hectares of cultivated land, has always been an important agricultural base in China. Grain and cotton outputs make up more than 40 percent and 30 percent of China’s total respectively, and rapeseed, sesame, raw silk, tea and tobacco also flourish here.

The Changjiang is the major east-west transportation artery for Central China. It serves a wide hinterland throughout its basin. Marco Polo once commented, “ on its banks are innumerable cities and towns, and the amount of shipping it carries upstream and down is so inconceivable that no one in the world who had not seen it with his own eyes could possibly credit it. Its width is such that it is more like a sea than a river.” In the fast-flowing portions of the river, river craft used to be pulled upstream by teams of coolies. They hauled their loads on long bamboo ropes from the river’s edge, or from steep paths cut into the cliffsides. The journey down stream through the gorges was once a fearsome dash through rolling, rock-strewn waters. Today, the waters have been somewhat tamed, and the river is navigable from Yibin to the sea with different forms of transportation. The dam which is being built across the river will be one of the largest in the world.

China's Rivers (1)

China has over 1,500 large rivers, and 79 of them have a catchment area of over 10,000 square kilometers, including the Changjiang, Huanghe, Zhujiang, Heilong, and Huaihe rivers.

Rivers have played a vital role in China’s economic, social and cultural development. With a total length of more than 400,000 kilometers, the nation’s river have created vast fertile plains for agriculture, allowing industry and commerce to flourish. However, occasionally, they have brought disasters.

China slopes gradually from the Eurasian hinterland in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. Its major rivers, including the Changjiang, Huanghe, Heilong, Zhujiang and Huaihe flow from west to east and empty ultimately into the Pacific Ocean. A few others, however, such as the Yarlu Zangbo in Tibet and the Nujiang in Yunnan Province, flow south into the Indian Ocean. The Ertix in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is the only river that flows northwest. All these are outflow rivers, and their drainage basins cover 63.7 percent of China’s total landmass. Most of China’s major inland rivers are located in the north and the west, the most important being the Tarim River and the Chaidamu River. In addition, there are also man-made rivers such as the Grand Canal.