River
Bukhan River
482 km from source to mouth · South Korea and North Korea.
South Korea and North KoreaFlows into Han River2nd longest in South Korea
In numbers
Length
482km
Average flow
200m³/s
Basin
23,292km²
Drop
428m
from 455 m to 27 m
Countries
2
The journey
From source to mouth
482 km of river and 11 stops on the way: 2 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 455 m
- 110 kmLake Paro25 km²
- 124 kmHwacheon22,965 people
- 154 kmSoyang Rivertributary
- 165 kmDeungseonpokpo
- 179 kmGapyeong55,415 people
- 180 kmGyeonggang Bridge
- 180 kmGapyeong Railway Bridge
- 206 kmCheongpyeong Lake11 km²
- 208 kmSincheongpyeong Bridge
- 229 kmYangsu Railway Bridge
- 232 kmPaldang Lake34 km²
- 233 kmHan Riverat 27 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in South Korea
At the mouth it carries 204 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 12 seconds. It drops from 455 m to 27 m, 0.9 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 23,292 km², about the size of DJ. 912,000 people live in it. Highest water: from August to September; lowest: from December to March. It is heavily dammed: reservoirs can hold 67% of a year's flow.
Where to start
- GapyeongLargest city on its banks · 55,415 people
- Wonju Airport / Hoengseong Air Base (K-38/K-46) (WJU)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 59 km from the cityCar hire in SeoulDiscover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water7 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- May and OctoberThe best months to visit
Bukhan River, month by month
Highest water: from August to September
Lowest water: from December to March. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): January. Best months to visit: May and October.
From about 27 m³/s in the lowest month to 660 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
Bukhan River: the basin in numbers
10,664 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 912,000people live in the basin
- 87/km²people per km²
- 517maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,389mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 8.3°Caverage air temperature
- 11%protected areas
- 1.1%covered by lakes
- 4.3km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 95% Forest
- 7% Cropland
- 3% 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
Bukhan River: what you find on the way
- 5Weirs
- 1Locks
- 2Waterfalls
- 1Boat ramps
- 4Ferry piersParoho Wharf, Ferry to Nami Island, Nami Island Pier and 1 more
- 1MarinasUiamho Cruise Ship
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.8 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Bukhan River in our other atlases
What our sister atlases know about the waterfalls on this river, the lakes it flows through, the beaches at its mouth, the mountains where it rises and the islands off its mouth.
1waterfall on the riverCascadyas
3lakes on its wayLakeyas
Waterfalls (1)
On the river, by Cascadyas
- Deungseonpokpokm 165
Cascadyas is coming soonOpen Cascadyas ↗
Lakes and reservoirs (3)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Lake Parokm 11025km²
- Cheongpyeong Lakekm 20611km²
- Paldang Lakekm 23234km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
From space
The source and the mouth, seen from orbit
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
Bukhan River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (2)
Also: Soyang River, Kŭmgang-ch'ŏn
Nearby
Rivers nearby
ChinaWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q494423) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth given by Wikidata |
| Flow | WaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate along the river | WorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Towns, bridges, dams | Wikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0 |
| Along the river | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Our other atlases | Cascadyas, Lakeyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; HydroLAKES · CC BY 4.0; NOAA OISST |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?
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