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.