About Yangtze River

Emanating from the wild windswept snowfields of its source on Qinghai-TibetPlateau, the mighty Yangtze winds its way through 11 provinces and municipalities before emptying into the East Sea. Being referred as the Long River for many generations, it has always had symbolic and practical significance for the Chinese. Nearly 6300 km (about 4000 miles), the river is China’s main artery, supporting a third of our people; it also serves as the country’s major commercial waterway.

The Yangtze River can be divided into three parts:
The Upper Reaches

begins from the source of Qinghai Province to Yichang in Hubei Province (4500km). It is the most attractive part of the river, with imposing mountain ranges, unbroken ravines, dangerous rapids and charming landscape. Along this 200-kilometer-long (130 miles) stretch, the river passes through the Three Gorges. In the Qutang Gorge, the river is only 100 meters wide with some 60 meters (200 feet) hydraulic gradient. In the Wu Gorge, mountains rise to a height of 500 to 1,000 meters (1,600 to 3,300 feet). In Xiling Gorge, it was featured with turbulent waves and dangerous shoals. Now this has become a history after the completion of China's largest engineering project - the Yangtze Three Gorge Dam.

The Middle Reaches
is from Yichang to Hukou at the mouth of Poyang Lake in Jiangxi Province, a distance of about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles). This region features countless twists and turns, flat lands with so many tributaries and lakes including two largest lakes in China: the Dongting and the Poyang. During rainy season, the waters play an important role in channeling the flood.