The Mã River (, ) is a river in

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

, originating in northwestern

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

. It flows 400km through Vietnam,

Laos Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR), is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast, and Thailand to the west and ...

, and then back through Vietnam, meeting the sea at the

Gulf of Tonkin The Gulf of Tonkin is a gulf at the northwestern portion of the South China Sea, located off the coasts of Tonkin ( northern Vietnam) and South China. It has a total surface area of . It is defined in the west and northwest by the northern co ...

. The largest tributaries of the Ma River are the Chu River (also called Nam Sam River in Laos), the Bưởi River, and the Cầu Chày River. All of them join the Ma River in Thanh Hóa Province in North Central Vietnam. The Mã River creates the Mã River Delta (also called the Thanh Hóa Delta), the third largest in Vietnam. The Mã River Delta used to be near Vietnam's southern frontier. It was the center of Cửu Chân, the southern of the Vietnam's two prefectures under the rule of the

Nanyue Nanyue ( zh, c=南越 or 南粵, p=Nányuè, cy=, j=Naam4 Jyut6, l=Southern Yue, , ), was an ancient kingdom founded in 204 BC by the Chinese general Zhao Tuo, whose family (known in Vietnamese as the Triệu dynasty) continued to rule until ...

in the 2nd century BC.Taylor, Keith Weller, "The Birth of Vietnam". University of California Press, 1983. p. 26

References

Rivers of Điện Biên province Rivers of Sơn La province Rivers of Thanh Hóa province Rivers of Laos International rivers of Asia Rivers of Vietnam {{Vietnam-river-stub