Saturday, September 13, 2008

Pearl Shoal Waterfall

The Dadu River , a tributary of the Yangtze, also known as the Tatu River, is located in the Sichuan province of China. The river is noted for being crossed by the Luding Bridge, a historically important bridge. It was the site of a famous battle by the Chinese communists over Nationalist troops during the Long March.

The Kangding Louding earthquake of 1786 caused a landslide dam in the Dadu. Ten days later, 10 June 1786, the dam broke and the resulting flood extended 1400km downstream, and killed 100,000 people. It is the second-deadliest landslide disaster on record.

A song from the Chinese ''The East Is Red'' is entitled "Across the Dadu River."

There is also a Dadu River in Taiwan.

Huangguoshu Waterfall

The Brahmaputra, also called Tsangpo-Brahmaputra, is a trans-boundary river and one of the major rivers of Asia.

From its origin in southwestern Tibet as the Yarlung Zangbo River, it flows across southern Tibet to break through the Himalayas in great gorges and into Arunachal Pradesh where it is known as Dihang. It flows southwest through the Assam Valley as Brahmaputra and south through Bangladesh as the . There it merges with the to form a vast delta. About 1,800 miles long, the river is an important source for irrigation and transportation. Its upper course was long unknown, and its identity with the Yarlung Tsangpo was only established by exploration in 1884-86. This river is often called Tsangpo-Brahmaputra river.
In Bangladesh the river merges with the Ganges and splits into two: the Hugli and Padma River. When it merges with the Ganges it forms the world's largest delta, the . The Sunderbans is known for tigers and mangroves.
While most Indian and Bangladeshi rivers bear female names, this river has a rare male name, as it means "son of Brahma" in Sanskrit .

The Brahmaputra is navigable for most of its length. The lower reaches are sacred to . The river is prone to catastrophic flooding in spring when the Himalayan snows melt. It is also one of the few rivers in the world that exhibit a tidal bore.

River course


Tibet


The originates in the ''Jima Yangzong'' glacier near Mount Kailash in the northern Himalayas. It then flows east for about , at an average height of , and is thus the highest of the major rivers in the world. At its easternmost point, it bends around Mt. Namcha Barwa, and forms the Yarlung Tsangpo Canyon which is considered the deepest in the world.

India


As the river enters Arunachal Pradesh, it is called ''Siang'' and makes a very rapid descend from its original height in Tibet, and finally appears in the plains, where it is called ''Dihang''. It flows for about and is joined by two other major rivers: and . From this point of confluence, the river becomes very wide and is called Brahmaputra. It is joined in by the Jia Bhoreli and flows through the entire stretch of Assam. In Assam the river is sometimes as wide as . Between and Lakhimpur districts the river divides into two channels---the northern ''Kherxhutia'' channel and the southern Brahmaputra channel. The two channels join again about downstream forming the Majuli island. At Guwahati near the ancient pilgrimage center of , the Brahmaputra cuts through the rocks of the Shillong Plateau, and is at its narrowest at bank-to-bank. Because the Brahmaputra is the narrowest at this point the Battle of Saraighat was fought here. The first rail-cum-road bridge across the Brahmaputra was opened to traffic in April 1962 at Saraighat.

The old Sanskrit name for the river is ' and the local name in Assam is '.
The native inhabitants, i.e., the Bodos called the river ', which means 'making a gurgling sound,' later Sanskritized into '.

When compared to the other major rivers in India, the Brahmaputra is less polluted but it has its own problems: petroleum refining units contribute most of the industrial pollution load into the basin along with other medium and small industries. The main problem facing the river basin is that of constant flooding. Floods have been occurring more often in recent years with deforestation, and other human activities being the major causes.

Bangladesh




In Bangladesh, the Brahmaputra splits into two branches: the much larger branch continues due south as the and flows into the Lower , locally called , while the older branch curves southeast as the lower Brahmaputra and flows into the . Both paths eventually reconverge near in Bangladesh and flow out into the Bay of Bengal. However, the actual Brahmaputra river in Bangladesh passes through the Jamalpur and Mymensingh district. Fed by the waters of the and Brahmaputra, this river system forms the Ganges Delta, the largest river delta in the world.

Flooding


During the monsoon season , floods are a common occurrence. Deforestation in the Brahmaputra watershed has resulted in increased siltation levels, flash floods, and soil erosion in critical downstream habitat, such as the Kaziranga National Park in middle Assam. Occasionally, massive flooding causes huge losses to crops, life and property. Periodic flooding is a natural phonomenon which is ecologically important because it helps maintain the lowland grasslands and associated wildlife. Periodic floods also deposit fresh alluvium replenishing the fertile soil of the Brahmaputra River Valley. Thus flooding, agriculture, and agricultural practices are closely connected.

Transportation and navigation


Until Indian independence in 1947, the Brahmaputra was used as a major waterway. In the 1990s, the stretch between Sadiya and Dhubri in India was declared as National Waterway No.2., and it provides facilities for goods transportation. Recent years have seen a modest spurt in the growth of river cruises with the introduction of the cruise ship, "Charaidew," by Assam Bengal Navigation.

Further reading


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*. Peace Palace Library
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Diaoshuilou Falls

The Ba River is a river in Tibet and the largest tributary of the Nyang River. It is the source of the Dadie Waterfall.

Detian Falls

Argun is the Russian name of the river which is a part of the Russia– border. Its upper reaches are known as Hailar He in China. Its length is 1,007 mi .

The river flows from the Western slope of the Greater Khingan Range in Inner Mongolia. Its with Shilka River forms the Amur River.

Changbai Waterfall

The Amur River or Heilong Jiang is the 's ninth longest river, forming the border between the Russian Far East and Northeastern China.

History and context


In many historical references these two geopolitical entities are known as Outer Manchuria and Inner Manchuria, respectively. The Chinese province of Heilongjiang on the south bank of the river is named after it, as is the Russian Amur Oblast on the north bank. The name Black River was used by the Manchu and the Qing Dynasty who always regarded this river as sacred.

The Amur River is a very important symbol of — and an important geopolitical factor in — Chinese-Russian relations. The Amur was especially important in the period of time following the Sino-Soviet political split in the 1960s.

River Steamers plied the Amur in the first years of the century. Mining dredges were imported from America to work the placer gold of the river. Barge and river traffic was greatly hindered by the Civil War of 1918-22. The ex-German Yangtse gunboats Vaterland and Otter, on Chinese Nationalist Navy service, patrolled the Amur in the 1920s.

The economy of the Amur Basin includes manufacturing, metallurgy, iron mining, non-ferrous metals, gold, coal, hydroelectricity, wheat, millet, soybeans, fishing, timber and Chinese-Russian trade. The Daqing oilfield, which is the world's 4th-largest oilfield, is located near Daqing City in Heilongjiang, a few hundred kilometers from the river.

Direction



Flowing across northeast Asia for over 4,444 , from the mountains of northeastern China to the Sea of Okhotsk , it drains a remarkable watershed that includes diverse landscapes of desert, steppe, tundra, and taiga, eventually emptying into the Pacific Ocean through the Strait of Tartary, where the mouth of the river faces the northern end of the island of Sakhalin.

The Amur has always been closely associated with Sakhalin, and most names for the island, even in the languages of the indigenous peoples of the region, are derived from the name of the river: "Sakhalin" derives from a dialectal form cognate with Manchu ''sahaliyan'' , while Ainu and Japanese "Karaputo" or "Karafuto" is derived from the name of the Amur or its mouth. Anton Chekhov vividly described the Amur River in writings about his journey to Sakhalin Island in 1890.

The average annual discharge varies from 6000 m?/s - 12000 m?/s , leading to an average 9819 m?/s or 310 km? per year. The maximum runoff measured occurred in Oct 1951 with 30700 m?/s whereas the minimum discharge was recorded in March 1946 with a mere 514 m?/s.

Tributaries


The Amur proper is 2,874 km long after the junction of two rivers:
* Northern tributary: the , originating from the eastern slopes of the Khentii Mountains in Mongolia.
* Southern tributary: the , originating on the western slopes of the Great Khingan Range in northeast China.

Major tributaries are:
* the ,
* the ,
* the ,
* the ,
* the ,
* the ,
* the

The Amur is bordered by Heilongjiang province of China in the south, and Amur Oblast, Jewish Autonomous Oblast, and Khabarovsk Krai of Russia in the north. The final stretch of the Amur passes through Khabarovsk Krai. It passes by the following cities:
*
* Blagoveshchensk
* Heihe
* Jiayin
* Tongjiang
* Fuyuan
* Khabarovsk
* Komsomolsk-na-Amure
* Nikolayevsk-na-Amure

Transportation




Valery Solomonovich Gurevich, government vice-chairman of Russia’s Jewish Autonomous Oblast said that China and Russia started construction of the Amur Bridge Project at the end of 2007. The bridge will link Nizhneleninskoye in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast with Tongjiang in Heilongjiang Province. The 2,197-meter-long bridge, with an estimated investment of nearly US$230 million, is expected to be finished by the end of 2010, Gurevich said. Gurevich said that the proposal to construct a bridge across the river was actually made by Russia, in view of growing cargo transportation demands. "The bridge, in the bold estimate, will be finished in three years," Gurevich said.

Bride's Pool

The Aksu River is a river in the Xinjiang province in . Aksu has its sources in the eastern part of Kyrgyzstan, in the Tien Shan mountains near the Chinese border. From here it first runs towards the west, before turning south and breaking through the high mountains and into Xinjiang in the northern parts of the Tarim Basin. At the city of it meets its main tributary, the , which flows in from the west. After the confluence the river continues south and enters the northern edge of the Taklamakan desert, where it joins the Tarim River. The Aksu River is the only one of the Tarim's source rivers to run throughout the year.