The Ou River () or Oujiang is the second-largest river in the

Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Ji ...

province of eastern

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 ...

. The river flows before finally reaching the city of

Wenzhou Wenzhou (pronounced ; Wenzhounese: Yuziou �y33–11 tɕiɤu33–32 ), historically known as Wenchow is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Zhejiang province in the People's Republic of China. Wenzhou is located at the extreme south east o ...

and emptying into the

East China Sea The East China Sea is an arm of the Western Pacific Ocean, located directly offshore from East China. It covers an area of roughly . The sea’s northern extension between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula is the Yellow Sea, separated ...

, into which it discharges of water annually. Shen Jiang (), Jiang Yongjia (), and Wenjiang () are all former names for this river.

Fauna

The Ou River has a rich fish fauna. A 2010 survey recorded 60 different fish species, with

goldfish The goldfish (''Carassius auratus'') is a freshwater fish in the family Cyprinidae of order Cypriniformes. It is commonly kept as a pet in indoor aquariums, and is one of the most popular aquarium fish. Goldfish released into the wild have bec ...

bagrid catfish The Bagridae are a family of catfish that are native to Africa ('' Bagrus'') and Asia (all other genera) from Japan to Borneo. It includes about 245 species. These fish are commonly known as naked catfishes or bagrid catfishes. Many large bagrid ...

, and ''

Pseudobagrus tenuis ''Pseudobagrus'' is a genus of bagrid catfishes that inhabit streams and rivers throughout East Asia. About half of these species occur in China. The two ''Coreobagrus'' species, ''C. brevicorpus'' and ''C. ichikiwai'', are both treated in som ...

'' being the most prolific in range. Compared to a 1972 survey, 20 new species were recorded, including two

alien species An introduced species, alien species, exotic species, adventive species, immigrant species, foreign species, non-indigenous species, or non-native species is a species living outside its native distributional range, but which has arrived there ...

(

Mozambique tilapia The Mozambique tilapia (''Oreochromis mossambicus'') is an oreochromine cichlid fish native to southeastern Africa. Dull colored, the Mozambique tilapia often lives up to a decade in its native habitats. It is a popular fish for aquaculture. Due ...

and

largemouth bass The largemouth bass (''Micropterus salmoides'') is a carnivorous freshwater gamefish in the Centrarchidae ( sunfish) family, a species of black bass native to the eastern and central United States, southeastern Canada and northern Mexico, ...

); however, 34 species recorded in 1972 were absent in 2010, and overall fish density was lower. Goby ''

Pseudorhinogobius aporus ''Rhinogobius aporus'' is a species in the goby subfamily Gobionellinae endemic to China.Tornabene, L. & Van Tassel, J. (2015)''Rhinogobius aporus''GOBY NET Research - Education - Conservation. It was first described as ''Pseudorhinogobius apor ...

'' is

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 ...

to the Ou River system: it is only known from a brook in the upper Ou River system.

Notes

References

Rivers of Zhejiang {{China-river-stub