Yangzi River: location, map, and all you need to know

Last Updated on August 15, 2023 by Hernan Gimenez

The Yangzi River, the largest river in China, crosses the country from east to west through a variety of topographies, with a wealth of information from the earliest times of mankind. Don’t miss it!

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A beautiful postcard of the river

The Yangtze River

Considered the longest river in Asia, the Yangtze, with a length of 6,380 kilometres, is the third longest river in the world after the Nile and the Amazon.

Its flow direction is south-east and east, and in this great journey its waters touch eight provinces of the country, including two important municipalities such as Chongqing and Shanghai, as well as bathing the recognised area of Tibet, called the autonomous region. The Mekong also flows there.

It discharges its waters at its mouth when it reaches the East China Sea near Shanghai.

Location and map of the Yangzi River

The Yangzi River rises at an altitude of about 4,000 metres on the Tibetan Plateau. It zigzags through twelve Chinese provinces. Its name means long river.

After its journey through eastern and south-eastern China, the Yangzi River empties its waters into the East China Sea in a beautiful and very wide delta. Perhaps as beautiful as the delta of the Orinoco.

The Yangzi River, in its initial course, makes its descent through a box-shaped valley that runs south-east, almost parallel to another great river in Asia, the Mekong.

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The Yangzi River in all its splendor

Then it changes direction, heading north-east to reach the fertile Roja basin, from where it widens and widens its valley to cross a densely populated area.

It narrows again and crosses narrow gorges that are difficult to navigate. From there, its waters flow from a place called Yichang across a fairly wide plain.

From there, the Yangzi continues eastwards and, after a journey of 6,300 kilometres, its waters settle at what is known as the mouth of the East China Sea, where a large delta is formed and where the intensity of the area is highlighted by large crops.

The Yangzi River has a large catchment area of 1,959,000 km2, which is characterised by the fact that it receives abundant rainfall during the summer.

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Beautiful panorama of the Yangzi River

Yangzi River flow

The average flow of the Yangtze River has been determined to be about 34,000 m3/sec at the mouth of the Yangtze River. Throughout its history, many major works have been carried out on its banks to help control flooding.

However, this great river of China has periodically caused numerous disasters due to flooding in what is considered to be one of the world’s most populous river basins.

Map of the Yangtze River

As for the location of the Yangzi River, we have that it begins or has its source in the Tibetan Plateau, and likewise the Yangzi River flows into the East China Sea, then the detail of the location on the map of the Yangzi River.

Map and Location of the Yangzi River

Yangzi River Mainland

It is the mainland of the Yangtze, the Asian continent, which is the continent with the highest population density on the planet, with a population of 4,140,000,000,000,000 souls.

This number of people is 61% of the total population of the planet. That is, more than half of the inhabitants of the Earth.

However, in terms of continents, the European and Asian continents have traditionally been separated for cultural and historical reasons.

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Asian Continent Map

If we take into account their physical location, we find that geographically there is no such separation, which is called Eurasia because both regions are a single continent.

It also turns out that Africa has its union with this unique continent, given by the Isthmus of Suez, a matter that considers that both Europe and Asia and Africa can be considered so that they are a single supercontinent whose name would be Eurafrasia or it could also be found as possible to be Afro-Eurasia.

Countries and Cities of the Yangtze River

Given the great extension that runs through the Yangzi River, it runs through his country China and is found with a large amount of population, being that it passes through the cities that run through the Yangzi River as:

  • Anqing
  • Chaohu
  • Chizhou
  • Chongqing
  • Chuzhou
  • Ezhou
  • Fengdu
  • Hefei
  • Huanggang
  • Huangshi
  • Jiangyang
  • Jiangyin
  • Jingzhou
  • Jiujiang
  • Luzhou
  • Maanshan
  • Nanjing
  • Nantong
  • Panzhihua
  • Shanghai
  • Shishou
  • Taizhou
  • Tongling
  • Wuhan
  • Wuhu
  • Xianning
  • Yangzhou
  • Yibin
  • Yichang
  • Yueyang
  • Zhenjiang.

Ocean into which the Yangtze River flows

The Yangzi River flows into the East China Sea, which is part of the Pacific Ocean. The East China Sea covers an area of 752,000 km2. But if you include its northern part, between China and the Korean peninsula, known as the Yellow Sea, it reaches 1,200,000 km2.

Curiosities

One of the curiosities of the Yangzi River is that one of the biggest problems it faces today is pollution, which affects the whole country in a very radical way, it is not known if the colour of the Yangzi River is due to pollution or to various factors, as in other rivers, caused by the death of animals discarded in the river.
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Here is a very interesting documentary that fills us with important information about this wonderful work of nature called the Yangzi River. A rich journey… Enjoy it!

 

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