The Batang River (
Chinese: ,
p ''Batánghé'') or Zha Chu (
Chinese: ,
p ''Zháqū''; Standard Tibetan: Za Qu), whose two sources are Za Qu (
w ''rdza Chu'',
z ''Za Qu'') and Bai Qu (
Tibetan: ,
w ''Dpal Chu'',
z ''Bä Qu''), is an long river in
Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, south-eastern
Qinghai
Qinghai is an inland Provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. It is the largest provinces of China, province of China (excluding autonomous regions) by area and has the third smallest population. Its capital and largest city is Xin ...
province
A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...
, in the
People's Republic of China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
. The river begins in the highlands of central
Yushu County
Yushu (, ), also Romanized as Yüxü, is a county-level city of Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Southern Qinghai Province, China. It comprises a surface area of . In 2010, the overall city's population was 120,447 and 56,802 live within t ...
and flows easterly through the
townships of
Batang () and
Gyêgu before meeting the
Tongtian River at the border of Yushu County with
Chindu County.
The Tongtian is the main stem of the
Yangtze River
The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ) is the longest river in Eurasia and the third-longest in the world. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains of the Tibetan Plateau and flows including Dam Qu River the longest source of the Yangtze, i ...
, and its confluence with the Batang is traditionally considered to mark the beginning of the
Jinsha section of the Yangtze. The Batang River's watershed covers and its average flow is 29 m³ per second.
References
Rivers of Qinghai
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