Xar Moron River

The Xar Moron river ( mn, Shar mörön Шар мөрөн, "Yellow River";the X is used roughly like in

Hanyu Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...

here, i.e. to present an "sh"-like sound. The cyrillic spelling, as used in

Outer Mongolia Outer Mongolia was the name of a territory in the Manchu-led Qing dynasty of China from 1691 to 1911. It corresponds to the modern-day independent state of Mongolia and the Russian republic of Tuva. The historical region gained ''de facto' ...

, would be Шар Мөрөн. Outer Mongolians, however, nowadays usually use the name "Shar Mörön" to refer to the larger

Yellow River The Yellow River or Huang He (Chinese: , Standard Beijing Mandarin, Mandarin: ''Huáng hé'' ) is the second-longest river in China, after the Yangtze River, and the List of rivers by length, sixth-longest river system in the world at th ...

. ) is a river in

Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...

, in

northeast China Northeast China or Northeastern China () is a geographical region of China, which is often referred to as "Manchuria" or "Inner Manchuria" by surrounding countries and the West. It usually corresponds specifically to the three provinces east of t ...

. It flows through the grasslands of that region, forming a valley that is hospitable to both farming and herding. The valley was once home to the

Khitan people The Khitan people (Khitan small script: ; ) were a historical nomadic people from Northeast Asia who, from the 4th century, inhabited an area corresponding to parts of modern Mongolia, Northeast China and the Russian Far East. As a people desce ...

. The Xar Moron is the source of the

Xiliao River The Xiliao or West Liao River () is a river in Inner Mongolia and Liaoning province, in northeast China. Its source is the Xilamulun River in Inner Mongolia. It is one of the headwaters of the Liao River. The Xiliao or "Western Liao River", his ...

(西辽河), which in turn is one of the headwaters of the

Liao River The Liao River () is the principal river in southern Northeast China, and one of the seven main river systems in China. Its name derived from the Liao region, a historical name for southern Manchuria, from which the Liaoning province, Liaodong P ...

. The musical instrument '' Xiqin'' (

奚琴 Xiqin may refer to: *Xiqin (instrument), a bowed string Chinese musical instrument *Western Qin (385-400, 409-431), a Xianbei state and one of the Sixteen Kingdoms * Xiqin Guildhall, a museum in Zigong, Sichuan, China Towns or townships in China * ...

), the ancestor of China's '' huqin'' family of bowed string instruments, is believed to have originated here with the Khitans, who were formerly called Xi ( 奚) by the Chinese. Rivers of Inner Mongolia Khitan history {{China-river-stub