The Gaoping River, also spelled Kaoping River (), is the second longest river in
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
after
Zhuoshui River
The Zhuoshui River, also spelled Choshui or Jhuoshuei River, () is the longest river in Taiwan. It flows from its source in Nantou County up to the western border of the county, subsequently forming the border between Yunlin County and Changhua ...
with a total length of . It is located on the southern part of the island, flowing through
Pingtung County
Pingtung County is a county located in southern Taiwan. It has a warm tropical monsoon climate and is known for its agriculture and tourism. Kenting National Park, Taiwan's oldest national park, is located in the county. The county seat is Pin ...
and
Kaohsiung City
Kaohsiung City (Mandarin Chinese: ; Wade–Giles: ''Kao¹-hsiung²;'' Pinyin: ''Gāoxióng'') is a special municipality located in southern Taiwan. It ranges from the coastal urban center to the rural Yushan Range with an area of . Kaohsiu ...
. It is the largest river in Taiwan by drainage area.
Draining a rugged area on the western side of the
Central Mountain Range
The Central Mountain Range is the principal mountain range on the island of Taiwan. It runs from the north of the island to the south. Due to this separation, connecting between the west and east is not very convenient. The tallest peak of th ...
.
[
]
Characteristics
The Gaoping River headwaters
The headwaters of a river or stream is the farthest place in that river or stream from its estuary or downstream confluence with another river, as measured along the course of the river. It is also known as a river's source.
Definition
The ...
originate near Yushan in northern Kaohsiung
Kaohsiung City (Mandarin Chinese: ; Wade–Giles: ''Kao¹-hsiung²;'' Pinyin: ''Gāoxióng'') is a special municipality located in southern Taiwan. It ranges from the coastal urban center to the rural Yushan Range with an area of . Kaohsi ...
’s Tauyuan District and a small part of southern Nantou County
Nantou County (; Hokkien POJ: ''Lâm-tâu-koān''; Hakka PFS: ''Nàm-thèu-yen'') is the second largest county of Taiwan by area, located in the central part of the country. It is also the only non-coastal county in Taiwan. Its name derives fro ...
. The upper section of the river, known as the Laonong, flows through a series of rugged canyons, through Liouguei and Gaoshu, and is joined by the Zhuokou River
The Zhuokou River, also spelled Chokou River or Jhuokou River (), is a tributary of the Laonong River, which in turn is a tributary of the Gaoping River, the main stream of this major river system in southwestern Taiwan. It flows through the Ta ...
. The Laonong emerges from the mountains at Meinong as a wide braided stream
A braided river, or braided channel, consists of a network of river channels separated by small, often temporary, islands called braid bars or, in English usage, ''aits'' or ''eyots''.
Braided streams tend to occur in rivers with high sediment lo ...
and after being joined by the Ailiao from the east, the Gaoping proper is formed, which flows about south along the coastal plain, through Pingtung County
Pingtung County is a county located in southern Taiwan. It has a warm tropical monsoon climate and is known for its agriculture and tourism. Kenting National Park, Taiwan's oldest national park, is located in the county. The county seat is Pin ...
, emptying into the Taiwan Strait
The Taiwan Strait is a -wide strait separating the island of Taiwan and continental Asia. The strait is part of the South China Sea and connects to the East China Sea to the north. The narrowest part is wide.
The Taiwan Strait is itself a s ...
in Linyuan District
Linyuan District () is a suburban district of Kaohsiung, Taiwan. It has 70,423 inhabitants in 2016. It is the southernmost district of the city.
History
The prehistory era of the district can be traced back to the artifacts found at the Fengbitou ...
. The Qishan River
The Qishan River () or Nanzixian River () is a tributary of the Gaoping River in Taiwan. It flows through Chiayi County, Kaohsiung City, and Pingtung County for 117 km.
Bridges
* Jiaxian Bridge
See also
*List of rivers in Taiwan
This ...
and the Wuluo River flow into the lower section of the Gaoping from north and east, respectively.
With an average annual discharge of , the Gaoping River is the second largest of Taiwan’s rivers by volume, following the Tamsui River
The Tamsui River (alternatively Danshui River, ) is third longest river in Taiwan after Zhuoshui River and Gaoping River, with a total length of , flowing through Hsinchu County, Taoyuan, Taipei and New Taipei City. It is located in northern pa ...
. About 90 percent of the precipitation, and consequently about 70–90 percent of the total flow, occurs during the rainy season from May to October. Like many Taiwanese rivers, the Gaoping carries large amounts of silt, ranging from 36 to 49 million tons per year; it is the second largest river in Taiwan (after the Zhuoshui River
The Zhuoshui River, also spelled Choshui or Jhuoshuei River, () is the longest river in Taiwan. It flows from its source in Nantou County up to the western border of the county, subsequently forming the border between Yunlin County and Changhua ...
) in terms of suspended-sediment load.
Almost half the total basin has an elevation greater than . Only about 20 percent of the basin is lower than in elevation. The Kaoping River valley is generally considered the boundary between the Alishan Range on the west and the higher Yushan Range
The Yushan Range, formerly the and also known as the JadeMountain Range, is a mountain range in the central-southern region of Taiwan Island. It spans Chiayi County, Kaohsiung City, and Nantou County. It faces the Central Mountain Range on the ...
to the east.
The Gaoping River basin is home to at least 66 fish species, 14 of which are endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...
. Cyprinid fish ''Opsariichthys kaopingensis'' is named after the river.
History
During Japanese rule the Gaoping River was known as the . The Japanese colonial government built the Shimo-Tansui Railway Bridge (now known as the Old Gaoping River Iron Bridge), at the time the longest iron bridge in Asia. The bridge was designed by engineer . Due to the unpredictable nature of the river the bridge took eight years to complete, at the cost of 42 lives.
On August 27, 2000, flooding damaged a bridge across the Gaoping River causing 16 vehicles to fall into the water, injuring 22 people.
In 2009 Typhoon Morakot
Typhoon Morakot, known in the Philippines as Typhoon Kiko, was the deadliest typhoon to impact Taiwan in recorded history. The eighth named storm and fourth typhoon of the 2009 Pacific typhoon season, Morakot wrought catastrophic damage in Taiwa ...
caused severe flooding along the Gaoping River. About of rain (one year’s typical precipitation) fell over the Gaoping River basin in a period of three days. The river flow peaked at on August 8, and exceeded for a total of nine hours. Several towns along the upper river were destroyed by flooding and landslides, killing up to 500 people. The flow of the river was so strong that it created currents of up to per hour in the Taiwan Strait, damaging or destroying eight submarine cables Submarine cable is any electrical cable that is laid on the seabed, although the term is often extended to encompass cables laid on the bottom of large freshwater bodies of water.
Examples include:
*Submarine communications cable
*Submarine power ...
.
Human use
The Gaoping is one of the few rivers in western Taiwan without a major dam in its basin. However, the river is used extensively for irrigation on the Pingtung plain and its tributaries supply water for domestic and industrial use. The Qishan River
The Qishan River () or Nanzixian River () is a tributary of the Gaoping River in Taiwan. It flows through Chiayi County, Kaohsiung City, and Pingtung County for 117 km.
Bridges
* Jiaxian Bridge
See also
*List of rivers in Taiwan
This ...
tributary is diverted to fill Nanhua Reservoir, which provides nearly 90% of the water supply for Kaohsiung City
Kaohsiung City (Mandarin Chinese: ; Wade–Giles: ''Kao¹-hsiung²;'' Pinyin: ''Gāoxióng'') is a special municipality located in southern Taiwan. It ranges from the coastal urban center to the rural Yushan Range with an area of . Kaohsiu ...
.
In the 1950s the Meinong Dam was proposed as a water supply project for Kaohsiung City. It would have consisted of a large off-stream reservoir in the northern part of Meinong District
Meinong District (WG: Meinung, Hakka: 瀰濃 Mî-nùng, ) is a Hakka district in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Meinong is one of the four districts in Kaohsiung that is the central focus of Hakka cultural development, the others being Jiasian District, Shanl ...
, with a storage capacity of 328 million m3 (266,000 acre feet) and an annual water yield of 46.2 million m3 (37,400 acre feet). The water would be diverted from the Laonong segment of the Gaoping River within Liouguei District
Liouguei District, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency ( Taivoan: ''Lakuri''; ) is a rural district of Kaohsiung City, Taiwan. It is the third largest district in Kaohsiung City after Tauyuan District and Namasia District. The ...
and transported to the reservoir via a tunnel. The project was officially overturned in 2000 by then-President Chen Shui-bian
Chen Shui-bian (; born 12 October 1950) is a retired Taiwanese politician and lawyer who served as the president of the Republic of China (Taiwan) from 2000 to 2008. Chen was the first president from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) whic ...
, who stated, “As long as there are alternative ways to supply water to the greater Kaohsiung area, it is not necessary to build the Meinung Dam.” The dam would have flooded an area culturally significant to the Hakka people
The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhe ...
.
The lower part of the river is heavily polluted by runoff from factories and livestock operations, especially from pigs and chickens. A significant amount of contamination originates from the Wuluo River tributary. Up to 65% of the pollution is caused by runoff from swine farms, with another 21% from industry, 13% from domestic waste and 2% from landfill
A landfill site, also known as a tip, dump, rubbish dump, garbage dump, or dumping ground, is a site for the disposal of waste materials. Landfill is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of the waste ...
s.
Transportation
Provincial Highway No. 20, which provides access between Pingtung County and Taitung County
Taitung County (; Mandarin pinyin: ''Táidōng Xiàn''; Hokkien POJ: ''Tâi-tang-koān''; Hakka PFS: ''Thòi-tûng-yen''; Paiwan: ''Valangaw'';lit:Eastern part of Taiwan) is the third largest county in Taiwan, located primarily on the island' ...
, follows the Gaoping River for about between Liouguei and Haiduan Township.
The Ligang Cable-Stayed Bridge crosses the Gaoping on Freeway 3 (Second Southern Freeway) from Kaohsiung
Kaohsiung City (Mandarin Chinese: ; Wade–Giles: ''Kao¹-hsiung²;'' Pinyin: ''Gāoxióng'') is a special municipality located in southern Taiwan. It ranges from the coastal urban center to the rural Yushan Range with an area of . Kaohsi ...
to Pingtung County
Pingtung County is a county located in southern Taiwan. It has a warm tropical monsoon climate and is known for its agriculture and tourism. Kenting National Park, Taiwan's oldest national park, is located in the county. The county seat is Pin ...
.
Bridges
* Kao-Ping Hsi Bridge
Kao-Ping Hsi Bridge () is a cable-stayed bridge over the Gaoping River connecting Dashu, Kaohsiung and Jiuru, Pingtung County in Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of th ...
* Ligang Bridge
The Ligang Bridge () is a cable-stayed bridge in Taiwan. It carries Freeway 3 (Second Southern Freeway) across the Gaoping River from Dashu District, Kaohsiung in the northwest and entering Jiuru Township, Pingtung County (although it is name ...
Tributaries
The main tributaries, from upstream to downstream, are:[
*]Laonong River
The Laonong River, also spelled Laonung River (), is a tributary of the Gaoping River in Taiwan; it is the main course of the river system above the Gaoping River. It flows through Kaohsiung City for 136 km.
See also
*List of rivers in Taiwa ...
– Kaohsiung City – 136 km
**Zhuokou River
The Zhuokou River, also spelled Chokou River or Jhuokou River (), is a tributary of the Laonong River, which in turn is a tributary of the Gaoping River, the main stream of this major river system in southwestern Taiwan. It flows through the Ta ...
– Kaohsiung City – 50 km
*Ailiao River
The Ailiao River () is a tributary of the Gaoping River in Taiwan. It flows through Kaohsiung City and Pingtung County for 68.5 km.
See also
*List of rivers in Taiwan
This is a list of rivers ( or ) on Taiwan Island in the Republic of ...
– Kaohsiung City, Pingtung County – 67 km
*Qishan River
The Qishan River () or Nanzixian River () is a tributary of the Gaoping River in Taiwan. It flows through Chiayi County, Kaohsiung City, and Pingtung County for 117 km.
Bridges
* Jiaxian Bridge
See also
*List of rivers in Taiwan
This ...
– Kaohsiung City, Pingtung County – 117 km
* Wuluo River – Pingtung County
See also
*List of rivers in Taiwan
This is a list of rivers ( or ) on Taiwan Island in the Republic of China which are over :
* Dongshan River - Yilan County -
*Lanyang River - Yilan County -
**Yilan River - Yilan County -
** Qingshui River - Yilan County -
** Luodong Ri ...
References
{{Commons category
Rivers of Taiwan
Landforms of Kaohsiung
Landforms of Pingtung County