The Ting River () flows from

Ninghua County Ninghua () is a county of the prefecture-level city of Sanming, in western Fujian province, People's Republic of China, bordering Jiangxi to the west. The town of Shibi of Ninghua is well known as the cradle of the Hakka. Ninghua is also marked a ...

in western

Fujian Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capi ...

south to the port and

Special Economic Zone A special economic zone (SEZ) is an area in which the business and trade laws are different from the rest of the country. SEZs are located within a country's national borders, and their aims include increasing trade balance, employment, increas ...

Shantou Shantou, alternately romanized as Swatow and sometimes known as Santow, is a prefecture-level city on the eastern coast of Guangdong, China, with a total population of 5,502,031 as of the 2020 census (5,391,028 in 2010) and an administrative ...

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

. It is a main tributary of the Han River and is also referred to Hakka Mother River (). The former prefecture of

Tingzhou fu Tingzhou fu () was a prefecture in Fujian province from the Tang Dynasty () down to the early 20th century, when it was renamed (). History As early as 3,000 to 4,000 years ago, the She people thrived along the Tingjiang river(), which origina ...

or T'ingchow-fu (汀州府) was administered from a centre on the upper river, now the town of Tingzhou in Changting County; all these places are named for the river. As most inhabitants of Tingzhou-fu/Changting are

Hakka 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 ...

, and as (

-speaking)

Meizhou Meizhou (, Hakka Chinese: Mòichû) is a prefecture-level city in eastern Guangdong province, China. It has an area of , and a population of 3,873,239 million as of the 2020 census. It comprises Meijiang District, Meixian District, Xingning City ...

(梅州) is next downstream, the Tingjiang is considered by some to be ''the mother river of all the Hakkas''. The Tingjiang is unique among Fujianese rivers in that its lower watershed and debouchment are outside the province. The traffic in Tingzhou-fu/Changting then (before road and rail came very recently) was always primarily with eastern areas of Guangdong, namely Meizhou and, further down, the

Min-Nan Southern Min (), Minnan (Mandarin pronunciation: ) or Banlam (), is a group of linguistically similar and historically related Sinitic languages that form a branch of Min Chinese spoken in Fujian (especially the Minnan region), most of Taiwan ...

-speaking ''Chao-Shan'' area --

Chaozhou Chaozhou (), alternatively Chiuchow, Chaochow or Teochew, is a city in the eastern Guangdong province of China. It borders Shantou to the south, Jieyang to the southwest, Meizhou to the northwest, the province of Fujian to the east, and the Sou ...

(潮州) and Shantou (汕头).

Tributaries

Yongding River (Fujian) The Yongding River () is a river in northern China. It is one of the main tributaries in the Hai River system and is best known as the largest river to flow through Beijing. In recent years, the Beijing segment of the river has dried up due to ...

- left tributary; much of

Yongding County Yongding () is a district under the jurisdiction of Longyan prefecture-level city in the southwest of Fujian Province, People's Republic of China. The district is a center for Hakka culture, including the traditional Hakka ''tulou'', and a local d ...

is within its drainage area. (Not to be confused with the

Yongding River The Yongding River () is a river in northern China. It is one of the main tributaries in the Hai River system and is best known as the largest river to flow through Beijing. In recent years, the Beijing segment of the river has dried up due to ...

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

Tributaries

See also