Yangtze River

The Yangtze

China, the worlds biggest country, is so large it is the home to the fourth longest river in the world. China alone has over 100,000 miles of inland waterways that are open to navigation. The country's most important inland waterway is the Amur River, but that is nothing compared to the Yangtze River.

The Yangtze is one of the most economically important water way of not just China, but of the world! Unlike the Amur River the Yangtze River is not icebound in the winter and because of that it accounts for over 40% of the nation's waterways. At 3,716 square miles long it places as the fourth longest river in the world, and the longest river in China and in Asia.

Though this river is a great source for transportation, it wasn't until 1961 that it became officially one of the 15 principle waterways. With 243.7 cubic meters of annual runoff and mild winters around the river it's not a real stretch to believe that the river contributes to almost half of the crops and irrigates a little under 70% of the country's gross volume of rice. It also contributes to much of China's cotton, wheat, barley, corn, and hemp. There are also many large cities next to the Yangtze, many of which have a population of over 1,000,000 people. These cities would consist of Nanking, Wu-han, Chung-king, and Ch'eng-tu.

The river's course begins in the Tibetan Highlands. In these highlands the people there are mostly in Agriculture and Cattle Farmers. The summers are warm and the Winters cold. The growing season lasts for 4 or 5 months in the summer. The people are predominately Chinese with many minorities. They Minorities consist of the Dungans, Nepalese, and Indians.

Here in in the high mountains of the Tibetan Highlands is the sources for this mighty river. The T'ang-ku-la Sun-mo, in the T'ang-ku-la mountains, is 18,000 feet above sea level. The second source is the Ulan Muren.