China abounds in rivers. More than 1,500 rivers each drain
1,000 sq km or larger areas. More than 2,700 billion cu m of water
flow along these rivers, 5.8 percent of the world's total. Most of
the large rivers find their source in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and
as a result China is rich in water-power resources, leading the
world in hydropower potential, with reserves of 680 million kw.
China's rivers can be categorized as exterior and interior systems.
The catchment area for the exterior rivers that empty into the
oceans accounts for 64 percent of the country's total land area. The
Yangtze, Yellow, Heilongjiang, Pearl, Liaohe, Haihe, Huaihe and
Lancang rivers flow east, and empty into the Pacific Ocean. The
Yarlungzangbo River in Tibet, which flows first east and then south
into the Indian Ocean, boasts the Grand Yarlungzangbo Canyon, the
largest canyon in the world, 504.6 km long and 6,009 m deep. The
Ertix River flows from the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to the
Arctic Ocean. The catchment area for the interior rivers that flow
into inland lakes or disappear into deserts or salt marshes makes up
36 percent of China's total land area. Its 2,179 km make the Tarim
River in southern Xinjiang China's longest interior river.
The Yangtze is the largest river in China. The picture shows the
Xilingxia Gorge of the Yangtze River.
The Yangtze is the largest river in China, and the third- longest in
the world, next only to the Nile in northeast Africa and the Amazon
in South America. It is 6,300 km long, and has a catchment area of
1.809 million sq km. The middle and lower Yangtze River's warm and
humid climate, plentiful rainfall and fertile soil make the area an
important agricultural region. Known as the "golden waterway," the
Yangtze is a transportation artery linking west and east. The Yellow
River is the second-largest river in China, 5,464 km in length, with
a catchment area of 752,000 sq km. The Yellow River valley was one
of the birthplaces of ancient Chinese civilization. It has lush
pastureland and abundant mineral deposits. The Heilongjiang River is
north China's largest. It has a total length of 4,350 km, of which
3,101 km are within China. The Pearl River is the largest river in
south China, with a total length of 2,214 km. In addition to those
endowed by nature, China has a famous man-made river-he Grand Canal,
running from Beijing in the north to Hangzhou in the south. Work
first began on the Grand Canal as early as in the fifth century B.C.
It links five major rivers-the Haihe, Yellow, Huaihe, Yangtze and
Qiantang. With a total length of 1,801 km, the Grand Canal is the
longest as well as the oldest man-made waterway in the world.
Erhai Lake is a fresh water lake on the plateau of Yunnan. The
picture shows the Triple Pagodas, one of the famous scenes by Erhai
Lake.
In a concerted effort to protect the nation's zoological and
botanical resources, and save species close to extinction, China has
established 1.146 nature reserves to protect forests and wildlife,
with a total area of 88.13 million ha. The 15 nature reserves in
China, namely, Sichuan's Wolong and Jiuzhaigou, Jilin's Changbai
Mountains, Guangdong's Dinghu Mountains, Guizhou's Fanjing
Mountains, Fujian's Wuyi Mountains, Hubei's Shennongjia, Inner
Mongolia's Xilingol, Xinjiang's Mt. Bogda, Yunnan's Xishuangbanna,
Jiangsu's Yancheng, Zhejiang's Tianmu Mountains Nanji and Islands
Guizhou's Maolan and Heilongjiang's Fenglin, have joined the "International People and Bio-sphere Protection Network." Heilongjiang's Zhalong, Jilin's Xianghai, Hunan's Dongting Lake,
Jiangxi's Poyang Lake, Qinghai's Bird Island, Hainan's Dongzhai
Harbor and Hong Kong's Mai Po have been included in the listing of
the world's important wetlands. |
Western
China
