Xiang River

The Xiang River , in older transliterations as the Siang River or Hsiang River, is a river in southern China. The river gave Hunan its Chinese abbreviation, the same as ''Xiang'' .

Geography

Originating from Haiyang Mountain in of Guangxi, the Xiang is the largest river in Hunan and one of the largest of Yangtze River. It is 856- long and 670-km of it is in Hunan. People say the Xiang and the Lijiang River share the same origination because of connecting the two rivers of the Lingqu Canal that it is located in Xing'an county, and 70 per centage of water in Lingqu flows in the Xiang and 30 percent flows in the Lijiang.

The river passes places such as , , and , Yongzhou, , Hengyang, Zhuzhou, Xiangtan, Changsha, , , and empties into Lake Dongting, where it connects to the Yangtze. The Xiang has 2,157 branches and covers 9,460,000 , and 8,530,000 km? are in Hunan .

Tributaries:
* The Xiao River flows into the Xiang near Changsha
* The Zheng River converges with the Xiang in Chengbei District , Hengyang

Deities

The river is said to be protected by two goddesses, the Xiang Consorts : Ehuang and Nüying .

They were the wives of the mystical ruler, . Unable to bear the pain of their husband's death, they committed suicide in this river. The spots on the dotted Xiang River bamboos , also known as Xiang Consorts Bamboo , are said to be the drops of the consorts. These bamboos are also known as Marked Bamboos or Tear Bamboos .

The people of the Warring States Period worshipped these Xiang Water Goddesses . The poet Qu Yuan wrote a poem called ''Ladies Xiang'' documented the songs of the rituals.

On June 14, 1919, young Mao Zedong found ''The Shian Kian Weekly Review'' to publicize Marxism theorem in Changsha.

The character Shi Xiangyun from the Chinese novel ''Dream of the Red Chamber'' takes the first character of her given name from this river.

Major cities along the river

*Hengyang
*Zhuzhou
*Xiangtan
*Changsha

West Guan Yong

West Guan Yong is a river located in the west of the city of Guangzhou, and is about five kilometers long, divided into two branches, the Upper West Guan Yong and the Lower West Guan Yong. Because of urban development, it has all been converted into .

During the reigh of Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, can sail along West Guan Yong up to Qingyun Bridge , which is today's Qingyun Li, Taoshayou, and Wanzhong Li. Since the Qing Dynasty, Daguan River, which is connected to West Guan Yong, has silted up to Guilan . In 1810, Qingyun Li, Taoshadang, and Wanzhong Li went into land. Daguan River is ended at 14-Pu Pier, today's in Ruixing Li. According to the 1872 ''Nanhai County Zhi'', Ruixing Li had gone into land by siltation, and the Daguan River goes only to Guangya Li. Further in 1954 only the waterway in the west of Milk Bridge remains.

Wei River

The Wei River is a river in west-central China and is the largest tributary of the Yellow River. The source of the Wei River is close to Weiyuan County in Gansu province. Weiyuan literally means "Wei's source". At its source, it is less than 200 kilometres from the Yellow River at Lanzhou. However, due to the sharp turn north the Yellow River takes in Lanzhou, the Wei and the Yellow Rivers do not meet for more than 2000 km further along the Yellow River's course. In a direct line, its source lies 700 kilometres west of the main city along its course, Xi'an in the Shaanxi province. The length of the river is 818 kilometres and the area drained covers 135.000 km? Its valley was one of the early cradles of Chinese civilisation, along which the capitals of the , , and were situated. The area in Dingxi City, Gansu Province, around its headwaters, has numerous stone age sites from various early cultures. In September of 2003 extensive rainfall led to flooding that caused over 30 fatalities, and temporarily displaced over 300,000 persons. Ecological aspects of the Wei River have been examined with respect to flow rates in the Wei River.

History

The headwaters of the Wei River are notable in the ancient history of the Northern Silk Road, one of four "Silk Roads" of antiquity. According to C. Michael Hogan, the Chinese segment of the Northern Silk Road is "the northernmost route of some 2600 kilometres, which connects the ancient Chinese capital of Xian to the west via the Chinese cities of Baoji, Tianshui , Lanzhou, Dunhuang, over the Wushao Ling Pass to Wuwei and emerging in Kashgar, China before linking to ancient Parthia. This route traverses the provinces of Shaanxi and Gansu as well as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. This most northern of the Silk Roads is characterised by its looping north of the Taklamakan Desert."

The Wei Valley is likely the earliest center of Chinese civilisation, and also the location of China's first major irrigation works.

Wei River (Shandong)

The Wei River of Shandong Province is a watercourse that meets the at Linqing in northwest Shandong province. It more or less parallels the Yellow River at some distance for a few miles. This river is a smaller different river from another watercourse in China named the ''Wei River''.

Ussuri River

The Ussuri River is a river in the east of Northeast China and south of the Russian Far East. It rises in the Sikhote-Alin range, flowing north, forming part of the -Russian border based on the Sino-Russian Convention of Peking in 1860, until it joins the Amur River at Khabarovsk . It is approximately 897 in length. The area of the Ussuri is 193,000 km?. Its waters come from rain , snow and . The Ussuri River is known for its catastrophic floods. It freezes up in November and stays under the ice until April. The river teems with different kinds of fish: grayling, sturgeon, humpback salmon , chum salmon and others.

The Sino-Soviet border conflict of 1969 took place on the Ussuri River.

Also, the Ussuri is a tributary of the Amur River.

Major tributaries of the Ussuri River are:
* Muling River
* Naoli River
* Songacha River
* Arsenyevka River
* Bikin River
* Khor River
* Bolshaya Ussurka River

Tumen River

The Tumen or Duman River is a 521 km-long river that serves as part of the boundary between China, North Korea, and Russia, rising in and flowing into the Sea of Japan.

The river flows in northeast Asia, on the border between China and North Korea in its upper reaches, and between North Korea and Russia in its last 17 kilometres before entering the Sea of Japan. The river forms much of the southern border of Jilin Province in Manchuria and the northern borders of North Korea's North Hamgyong and Yanggang provinces. Baekdu Mountain on the Chinese-North Korean border is the source of the river, as well as of the Yalu River.

The name of the river comes from the word '''', meaning "ten thousand". This river is badly polluted by the nearby factories of North Korea and China; however, it still remains a major tourist attraction in the area. In Tumen, Jilin, China, a riverfront promenade has restaurants where patrons can gaze across the river into North Korea. Russian name of river is ''Tumannaya''. It means ''foggy''.

Important cities on the river are Hoeryong, Namyang and Onsong in North Korea, and in China.

Refugee crossing

The Tumen has been used for years by North Korean refugees defecting across the Chinese border. Most refugees from North Korea during the 1990s famine crossed over the Tumen River, and most recent refugees have also used it.

Although the Tumen is heavily patrolled by armed guards of the DPRK, the river is considered the preferred way to cross into China because, unlike the swift and deep Yalu River which runs along most of the border between the two countries, the Tumen is shallow and narrow. "It is easily crossed in spots on foot or by swimming," according to a 2006 article in ''The New York Times''.

Defectors who wish to cross the Tumen often ignore its pollutants and dangerous border patrol, and spend weeks if not months or years waiting for the perfect opportunity to cross.

"Long, desolate stretches of the Chinese-North Korean border are not patrolled at all," according to ''The New York Times'' article.

Refugees seldom cross the Tumen into Russia because that government patrols its short stretch of the river more actively than China, and the refugees have no large ethnic Korean community in which to hide.

Toshkan River

The Toshkan is a river in the Tien Shan mountains in the border area between and Kyrgyzstan. The Toshkan has its sources in the mountains south of the kyrgyzstani city of Naryn. It then flows towards the east and into the Xinjiang province of China. It continues east, running parallel to the Tien Shan mountains, until its confluence with the . The Toshkan is the main tributary of the Aksu.