The Black River, (, from the Tai language ''Da'' meaning "dark-brown") also known upstream as the Lixian River in China, is a river located in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

and northwestern

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

Course

Its source is in

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked Provinces of China, province in Southwest China, the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is ...

province of China. From China, the river's course passes through the Vietnamese provinces of

Lai Châu Lai Châu () is a city in the Northwest region of Vietnam. It is the capital city of Lai Châu Province. The city borders Phong Thổ District, Sìn Hồ District và Tam Đường District. History Lai Châu, or Muang Lay (Vietnamese: Mư� ...

(where it forms part of the border with Điện Biên province),

Sơn La Sơn La (; Tai Dam: ) is a city in the north-west region of Vietnam. It is the capital of Sơn La Province. It is bordered by Thuận Châu District, Mường La District, and Mai Sơn District. History In the era of the Sip Song Chau Tai, Sơ ...

and Hòa Bình. The Black River is the most important tributary of the Red River, which it joins in Tam Nông district near

Việt Trì Việt Trì (越池) is the capital city of Phú Thọ Province in the Northeast region of Vietnam. In 2010, the city had a population of 260,288. The city covers an area of . Việt Trì is also the economic centre of the province and contains ...

Phú Thọ province In chemistry, pH (), historically denoting "potential of hydrogen" (or "power of hydrogen"), is a scale used to specify the acidity or basicity of an aqueous solution. Acidic solutions (solutions with higher concentrations of ions) are ...

. It also forms part of the border between

and

Hanoi Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi is ...

(previously the border with

Hà Tây province Hà Tây () was a former province of Vietnam, in the Red River Delta, now part of Hanoi. On May 29, 2008 the decision was made to subsume the province into the city of Hanoi. The merger took place on August 1, 2008. The name of the province wa ...

). The river's total length is 910 km, with approximately 427 km in China and 527 km in Vietnam.

Hydroelectric power

The Black River yields substantial

hydroelectric power Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined and ...

. In China, seven dams are planned of which six, the

Yayangshan Dam The Yayangshan Dam (崖羊山大坝) is a concrete-face rock-fill dam on the Lixian River, bordering the counties of Ning'er and Mojiang in Yunnan Province, China. It is located from Pu'er City. The primary purpose of the dam is hydroelectric ...

, Shimenkan Dam, Longma Dam, Jufudu Dam,

Gelantan Dam The Gelantan Dam (戈兰滩大坝) is a gravity dam on the Lixian River, bordering the counties of Honghe and Jiangcheng in Yunnan Province, China. The primary purpose of the dam is hydroelectric power generation and it supports a 390 MW power ...

, and

Tukahe Dam The Tukahe Dam (土卡河) is a gravity dam on the Lixian River, bordering the counties of Luchun and Jiangcheng in Yunnan Province, China. The primary purpose of the dam is hydroelectric power generation and it supports a 165 MW power statio ...

, have been completed. The Xinpingzhai Dam is still in the planning stage. The total installed power capacity of this series of dams is approximately 1,300

megawatt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units, International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), ...

s. In

, there are three large hydroelectric plants on the Black River. The

Hòa Bình Dam The Hòa Bình Dam on the Black River () is the largest hydroelectric dam in Vietnam from 1994 to 2012 (this record was broken by Sơn La Dam), and one of the largest in Southeast Asia, with a generating capacity of . The Sông Đà Reservoir, ...

was completed in 1994. The

Sơn La Dam Sơn La Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Black River in Ít Ong, Mường La District, Sơn La Province, Vietnam. It is the largest hydroelectric power station in Southeast Asia. History The project was proposed in the 1970s. Several stu ...

was completed in 2012 and became the largest hydroelectric producer in

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

. The

Lai Châu Dam The Lai Châu Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Black River inaugurated on 20 December 2016 in Nậm Nhùn District, Lai Châu Province, Vietnam. The owner of the power station is Vietnam Electricity. Dam was designed by Hydroproject, a Russian ...

in the

Mường Tè district Muong may refer to: *Muong people, third largest of Vietnam's 53 minority groups **Muong language, spoken by the Mường people of Vietnam *No Muong, king of the southern Laotian Kingdom of Champasak in 1811 * Mueang Mueang ( th, เมือง ...

Lai Châu province Lai or LAI may refer to: Abbreviations * Austrian Latin America Institute (Österreichisches Lateinamerika-Institut) * ''Latin American Idol'', TV series * La Trobe Institute, Melbourne, Australia * Leaf area index, leaf area of a crop or ve ...

was inaugurated on December 20, 2016. The total installed power capacity of these three dams is 5,520

References

External links

{{Coord, 21, 13, 37.05, N, 105, 20, 51.79, E, display=title Rivers of Lai Châu province Rivers of Điện Biên province Rivers of Phú Thọ province Hong River Borders of Vietnam Rivers of Hanoi Rivers of Yunnan Geography of Pu'er Geography of Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture Rivers of Vietnam

Course

Hydroelectric power

See also

References

External links