Waterways (main page)
Yangtze, world's busiest river in the most populated country attracts innumerable foreign and local tourists. A tour of China will be incomplete without a tour of the Yangtze River. The name Yangtze was originally used by local people to refer to the lower reaches of the river. Yangtze can be rightfully called the cradle of Chinese civilization. It is the longest river of China and Asia, and the third largest in the world - close to 6,400km (3,900mi). It originates to the far west in the Tibetan Plateau and flows east all the way to the Pacific ocean dividing China's south and north right in the middle. The most famous part of the river is the Three Gorges section (Qutang Gorge, Wuxia, and Xiling) , 200km of sharp bends constricted between series of limestone cliffs. The area is very prone to earthquakes because it lies directly on a fault line. Actually, the plateau and gorges were created by collision of the Indian - Australian plate, drifting northward, with the Eurasian plate that began over 40 million years ago and continues today. Waters of the Yangtze are often used for rice and wheat irrigation. It also has enormous and inexhaustible hydroelectric resources. In 1995 construction began on the Three Gorges Dam near Yichang city and is scheduled for completion in 2009. The dam will measure about 600 feet high and about 1.5 miles long. The hydroelectric generators will provide 1/9 of China's total power output.
Approximately 350 million people inhabit the region of the Yangtze.
Length - 6,400km (3,900mi) - third largest river in the world.
Yangtze's endangered species: The Chinese River Dolphin & the Chinese Alligator.
The River Yangtze has over 700 tributaries: Ya-Lung, Minjiang, Daduhe, Tuojiang, etc.