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River

Bei River

255 km from source to mouth · China.

ChinaChinaFlows into Xi River

Follow the riverMonth by month

SourceMouthQingyuan
The river and every tributary in its basin, drawn from RiverATLAS (CC BY 4.0).

In numbers

Length

255km

Average flow

1,500m³/s

Basin

45,900km²

Drop

56m

from 55 m to -1 m

Country

1

The journey

From source to mouth

255 km of river and 6 stops on the way: 2 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.

55 m-1 m
Sourceat 55 m0 km
Lianjiang Rivertributary122 km
Qingyuan1,738,424 people181 km
Bin Rivertributary189 km
Xi Riverat -1 m255 km
0100200255 km
  1. 0 kmSourceat 55 m
  2. 0 kmShaoguan1,028,460 people
  3. 0 kmWu Rivertributary
  4. 0 kmZhen Rivertributary
  5. 122 kmLianjiang Rivertributary
  6. 181 kmQingyuan1,738,424 people
  7. 189 kmBin Rivertributary
  8. 255 kmXi Riverat -1 m

Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.

River in Guangdong, China, forming the northern tributary of the Pearl River

At the mouth it carries 1,543 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 1.6 seconds. It drops from 55 m to -1 m, 0.2 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 45,900 km², about the size of EE. 9.3 million people live in it. Highest water: June; lowest: from November to February. Its dams hold back little of its water (8.0% of a year's flow).

Read more on Wikipedia

Where to start

  • QingyuanLargest city on its banks · 1,738,424 people
  • Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport (CAN)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 44 km from the city
  • On the water29 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
  • From October to DecemberThe best months to visit

Bei River, month by month

Highest water: June

Lowest water: from November to February. Best months to visit: from October to December.

490
12°48 mmJan
750
13°90 mmFeb
1,200
17°137 mmMar
1,900
21°226 mmApr
2,800
26°312 mmMay
3,200
28°294 mmJun
2,700
29°174 mmJul
2,300
29°212 mmAug
1,600
27°117 mmSep
1,200
24°66 mmOct
660
19°39 mmNov
480
14°36 mmDec
Water (estimated flow)Air (average) Rain (mm)Best months

From about 480 m³/s in the lowest month to 3,200 m³/s in the highest. An estimate: the monthly flow is modelled from the lowest and highest months of WaterGAP (RiverATLAS, 1971–2000) and the rain and snow along the river (WorldClim). Dams change the real rhythm. The chip is the average air temperature; below it, the month's rain.

Plan the trip

Plan the trip: boat trips, a bed by the river, a car

Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.

The basin

Bei River: the basin in numbers

47,249 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.

Lightly regulatedReservoirs can hold 8.0% of a year's flow.
  • 9.3millionpeople live in the basin
  • 199/km²people per km²
  • 364maverage altitude of the basin
  • 1,653mmof rain a year (basin average)
  • 19.4°Caverage air temperature
  • 7%protected areas
  • 0.4%covered by lakes
  • 3.9km³held in reservoirs

What covers the basin

  • 70% Forest
  • 12% Cropland
  • 6% Pasture
  • 11% Towns and cities

RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.

Along the river

Bei River: what you find on the way

  • 16DamsFeilaixia Dam and 15 more
  • 4Locks
  • 26Ferry piersQingyuan Nanan Pier and 25 more
  • 3Marinas

From OpenStreetMap, within 2.2 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.

From space

The source and the mouth, seen from orbit

Bei River: satellite view of the source
The source14 km across
Bei River: satellite view of the mouth
The mouth30 km across

Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. The glowing line is the river as drawn by RiverATLAS.

Photos

Bei River in pictures

200408 Bei River 45
Jonashtand · CC BY-SA 4.0
20231211 G0423 Expressway and Lianjiang River in Yingde
Windmemories · CC BY-SA 4.0

Tributaries

Where it flows, and what flows into it

Tributaries (5)

Also: Lianjiang River, Zhen River, Wu River, Sui River, Bin River

Where these numbers come from

Name, length, placesWikidata (Q814633) · CC0
Course, profile, basinRiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth given by Wikidata
FlowWaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0
Climate along the riverWorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0
Towns, bridges, damsWikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0
Along the river© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons

Every source and licence is on the data sources page.

The family

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