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 with a total length of . It is located on the southern part of the island, flowing through
Pingtung County and
Kaohsiung City. 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’s Tauyuan District and a small part of southern Nantou County. 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 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 ...
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, 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 ...
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. 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) 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 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 else ...
. 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 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.
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, 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, Zhej ...
.
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 landfills.
Transportation
Provincial Highway No. 20, which provides access between Pingtung County and Taitung County, 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 to Pingtung County.
Bridges
* Kao-Ping Hsi Bridge
* Ligang Bridge
Tributaries
The main tributaries, from upstream to downstream, are:[
* Laonong River – Kaohsiung City – 136 km
** Zhuokou River – 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
References
{{Commons category
Rivers of Taiwan
Landforms of Kaohsiung
Landforms of Pingtung County