The Songhua
or Sunghwa River (also Haixi or Xingal, russian: Сунгари ''Sungari'') is one of the primary
rivers of China
This incomplete list of rivers that flow through China is organized according to the body of water into which each river empties, beginning with the Sea of Okhotsk in the northeast, moving clockwise on a map and ending with the Arctic Ocean.
...
, and the longest
tributary
A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drai ...
of the
Amur
The Amur (russian: река́ Аму́р, ), or Heilong Jiang (, "Black Dragon River", ), is the world's tenth longest river, forming the border between the Russian Far East and Northeastern China (Inner Manchuria). The Amur proper is long ...
. It flows about
from the
Changbai Mountains on the
China–North Korea border through China's northeastern
Jilin
Jilin (; Postal romanization, alternately romanized as Kirin or Chilin) is one of the three Provinces of China, provinces of Northeast China. Its capital and largest city is Changchun. Jilin borders North Korea (Rasŏn, North Hamgyong, R ...
and
Heilongjiang
Heilongjiang () Postal romanization, formerly romanized as Heilungkiang, is a Provinces of China, province in northeast China. The standard one-character abbreviation for the province is (). It was formerly romanized as "Heilungkiang". It is th ...
provinces.
The river drains of land, and has an annual discharge of to .
The extreme flatness of the
Northeast China Plain has caused the river to
meander
A meander is one of a series of regular sinuous curves in the channel of a river or other watercourse. It is produced as a watercourse erodes the sediments of an outer, concave bank ( cut bank) and deposits sediments on an inner, convex ban ...
over time, filling the wide plain with
oxbow lakes, as remnants of the previous paths of the river.
Geography
The Songhua rises south of
Heaven Lake
Heaven Lake ( Korean: , ''Ch'ŏnji'' or ''Cheonji''; zh, 天池, ''Tiānchí''; Manchu: ''Tamun omo'' or ''Tamun juce'') is a crater lake on the border between China and North Korea. It lies within a caldera atop the volcanic Paektu Moun ...
, near the
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
-
North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...
border.
From there it flows north, to be interrupted by the
Baishan,
Hongshi and
Fengman hydroelectric dams. The Fengman Dam forms a lake that stretches for . Below the dam, the Second Songhua flows north through
Jilin
Jilin (; Postal romanization, alternately romanized as Kirin or Chilin) is one of the three Provinces of China, provinces of Northeast China. Its capital and largest city is Changchun. Jilin borders North Korea (Rasŏn, North Hamgyong, R ...
, then northwest until it is joined by its largest tributary, the
Nen River
The Nen River or Nenjiang (), or Nonni () is a river in Northeast China. The Nen River flows through the northern part of Heilongjiang Province and the northeastern section of Inner Mongolia, some parts of the river forming the border between ...
, near
Da'an, to create the Songhua proper.
The Songhua turns east through
Harbin, and after the city, it is joined from the south by the
Ashi River
The Ashi River is a right tributary of the Songhua in eastern Manchuria,. in Harbin's Acheng District in the People's Republic of China.
Name
The river has borne the name "Ashi" since the Qing (17th–20th century). Before that, it was known as t ...
, and then by the
Hulan River from the north.
A new dam was constructed in 2007 near
Bayan
Bayan may refer to:
Eduational Institutions
* Bayan Islamic Graduate School, Chicago, IL
Places
*Bayan-Aul, Pavlodar, Kazakhstan
*Bayan Mountain, an ancient mountain name for part of Tarbagatai Mountains at Kazakhstan in Qing Dynasty period
* ...
(50 km northeast of
Harbin), creating the Dadingshan Reservoir, which is named after the scenic area on the south bank ().
The river flows onward through
Jiamusi and south of the
Lesser Xing'an Range, to eventually join the Amur at
Tongjiang, Heilongjiang
Tongjiang () is a city of 160,000 in eastern Heilongjiang province, People's Republic of China, located at the confluence and on the right banks of the Songhua and Amur Rivers, the latter which marks the border with Russia. Administratively, it i ...
.
The river freezes from late November until March. It has its highest flows when the mountain snow melts during the spring thaw. The river is
navigable up to Harbin by medium-sized ships. Smaller craft can navigate the Songhua up to
Jilin
Jilin (; Postal romanization, alternately romanized as Kirin or Chilin) is one of the three Provinces of China, provinces of Northeast China. Its capital and largest city is Changchun. Jilin borders North Korea (Rasŏn, North Hamgyong, R ...
and the Nen River up to
Qiqihar.
Cities along the river include:
*
Jilin
Jilin (; Postal romanization, alternately romanized as Kirin or Chilin) is one of the three Provinces of China, provinces of Northeast China. Its capital and largest city is Changchun. Jilin borders North Korea (Rasŏn, North Hamgyong, R ...
*
Harbin
*
Jiamusi
History
In November 2005, the river was
contaminated with benzene, leading to a shutdown of Harbin's water supply. The spill stretched and eventually reached the Amur (Heilong) River on the
China–Russia border. On July 28, 2010, several thousand barrels from two chemical plants in China's Jilin City were washed away by
floods. Some of them contained of explosive material like
trimethylsilyl chloride and
hexamethyldisiloxane.
Defence lines were opened in attempt to intercept the barrels with chemicals
RIA Novosti, 30.07.2010 In 2016, the part near the city of Jilin was affected by a minor flood.
See also
* Geography of China
* Mudanjiang River
* "Along the Songhua River
"Along the Songhua River" () is a patriotic song from the War of Resistance in both the Republic of China (now in Taiwan) and the People's Republic of China.
History
The song describes the lives of the people who had lost their homeland along th ...
", a Chinese patriotic song
References
External links
{{Authority control
Rivers of Heilongjiang
Rivers of Jilin
Harbin
Jilin City
Geography of Yanbian