The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest
river in Asia, the
third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in the
Tanggula Mountains (Tibetan Plateau) and flows in a generally easterly direction to the
East China Sea. It is the
seventh-largest river by discharge volume in the world. Its
drainage basin
A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...
comprises one-fifth of the land area of China, and is home to nearly one-third of the
country's population.
The Yangtze has played a major role in the
history
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...
,
culture
Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these grou ...
, and
economy of China. For thousands of years, the river has been used for water, irrigation, sanitation, transportation, industry, boundary-marking, and war. The prosperous
Yangtze Delta generates as much as 20% of
China's GDP. The
Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze is the
largest hydro-electric power station in the world that is in use. In mid-2014, the Chinese government announced it was building a multi-tier
transport network, comprising railways, roads and airports, to create a new economic belt alongside the river.
The Yangtze flows through a wide array of ecosystems and is habitat to several
endemic
Endemism is the state of a spec