The Liao River (simplified Chinese: 辽河; traditional Chinese: 遼河; Mandarin Pinyin: Liáo Hé; Jyutping: liu4 ho4) is the principal river in northeast China (1,345 km). The province of Liaoning and the Liaodong Peninsula derive their names from the river.
The western branch of the Liao (Xi Liao He) is formed by the confluence of the Shara Muren (Xar Moron He) flowing from the east and the Laoha (Laoha He) flowing from the south, at approximately 43° 25' N, 120° 45' E. It is joined by the Xinkai He, which drains the southeast slopes of the Khingan Mountains and is dry in its upper reaches except after thunderstorms, 8 km north of the city of Shuangliao. The eastern branch of the river (Dong Liao He)rises in low mountains in central Liaoning. The two branches of the river meet near the junction of Liaoning, Jilin and Inner Mongolia, approximately 42° 59' N, 123° 33' E, and flow across a vast plain to the Bohai Gulf.
Two major tributaries of the river, the Hun He ("muddy river") and the Taizi He, both of which flow down from the Qianshan range, used to flow into the Liao River shortly before it flowed into the sea, but the Atlas of China (Beijing, Sinomaps Press, 2006) shows that while the two tributaries continue to follow their traditional route and flow into the sea at what this atlas still identifies as the "Liao He Kou", the mouth of the Liao River, virtually all of the water of the Liao He has been diverted into the ShuangTaizi He, which flows into Bohai Gulf about 35 kilometers to the northwest. Google Earth also shows this new pattern.
Several major cities are located on the Hun He, including Shenyang, the provincial capital, Fushun, farther upstream, and Yingkou at the mouth. Anshan is located on the southeastern edge of the basin.
The Liao He drains an area of over 232,000 square kilometres, but its mean discharge is quite small at only about 500 cubic metres per second - about one-twentieth that of the Pearl River.
Like the Huang He, the Liao He has an exceedingly high sediment load because many parts of it flow through powdery loess.
Famous quotes containing the word river:
“Other roads do some violence to Nature, and bring the traveler to stare at her, but the river steals into the scenery it traverses without intrusion, silently creating and adorning it, and is as free to come and go as the zephyr.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)