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River

Huai River

1,110 km from source to mouth · China.

ChinaChinaFlows into Hongze Lake

Follow the riverMonth by month

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

In numbers

Length

1,110km

Average flow

1,200m³/s

Basin

187,000km²

Drop

129m

from 139 m to 10 m

Country

1

The journey

From source to mouth

1,110 km of river and 14 stops on the way: 2 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.

139 m10 m
Sourceat 139 m0 km
Hong River (Huai River)tributary425 km
Shiguan Rivertributary499 km
Jiaogang Hu38 km²646 km
Bengbu972,784 people804 km
Huayuan Hu44 km²889 km
Hongze Lakeat 10 m1,110 km
02505007501,110 km
  1. 0 kmSourceat 139 m
  2. 425 kmHong River (Huai River)tributary
  3. 499 kmShiguan Rivertributary
  4. 622 kmYing Rivertributary
  5. 646 kmJiaogang Hu38 km²
  6. 779 kmHuaiyuan Chengguanzhen65,530 people
  7. 787 kmGuo Rivertributary
  8. 804 kmBengbu972,784 people
  9. 804 kmOld Bengbu Huai River Railway Bridge
  10. 808 kmBengbu Bridge
  11. 889 kmHuayuan Hu44 km²
  12. 901 kmQiaozijian Reservoir3.0 km²
  13. 905 kmTuohu38 km²
  14. 1,001 kmDou Lake29 km²
  15. 1,055 kmHongze Lake1,374 km²
  16. 1,110 kmHongze Lakeat 10 m

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

Major river in Northern China

At the mouth it carries 1,247 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 2.0 seconds. It drops from 139 m to 10 m, 0.1 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 187,000 km², about the size of SY. 86.9 million people live in it. Highest water: from July to September; lowest: from December to February. Dams and reservoirs hold back a large share of its water (37% of a year's flow).

Read more on Wikipedia

Where to start

  • BengbuLargest city on its banks · 972,784 people
  • Bengbu Tenghu Airport (BFY)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 38 km from the city
  • On the water70 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
  • From April to May and from September to OctoberThe best months to visit

Huai River, month by month

Highest water: from July to September

Lowest water: from December to February. Best months to visit: from April to May and from September to October.

620
2°30 mmJan
680
4°39 mmFeb
820
9°51 mmMar
1,100
16°76 mmApr
1,300
21°84 mmMay
1,600
26°112 mmJun
2,400
28°196 mmJul
2,600
28°130 mmAug
2,500
23°83 mmSep
2,100
17°48 mmOct
1,200
10°34 mmNov
790
4°22 mmDec
Water (estimated flow)Air (average) Rain (mm)Best months

From about 620 m³/s in the lowest month to 2,600 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

Car hire in ChinaDiscover CarsSee 

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

Huai River: the basin in numbers

154,516 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.

Heavily regulatedReservoirs can hold 37% of a year's flow: dams shape its seasons.
  • 86.9millionpeople live in the basin
  • 568/km²people per km²
  • 104maverage altitude of the basin
  • 852mmof rain a year (basin average)
  • 15.0°Caverage air temperature
  • 2%protected areas
  • 1.4%covered by lakes
  • 14km³held in reservoirs

What covers the basin

  • 6% Forest
  • 59% Cropland
  • 11% Pasture
  • 14% 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

Huai River: what you find on the way

  • 23Dams
  • 6Weirs
  • 11LocksXinkai River and 10 more
  • 2Boat ramps
  • 63Ferry piers
  • 5Marinas

From OpenStreetMap, within 2.5 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.

Cross-checked with our atlases

Huai 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.

  • 6lakes on its wayLakeyas
  • 1mountain at the sourcePeakyas

Lakes and reservoirs (6)

Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas

  1. Jiaogang Hukm 47738km²
  2. Huayuan Hukm 65744km²
  3. Qiaozijian Reservoirkm 6653.0km²
  4. Tuohukm 66838km²
  5. Dou Lakekm 74029km²
  6. Hongze Lakekm 779 · 6 m deep1,374km²

Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗

Mountains at the source (1)

Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas

  1. Taibai Ding10 km away

Open Peakyas ↗

From space

The source and the mouth, seen from orbit

Huai River: satellite view of the source
The source14 km across
Huai River: satellite view of the mouth
The mouth54 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

Huai River in pictures

201806 Bengbu and Huai River
MNXANL · CC BY-SA 4.0
Huai2 AMO 2007157 lrg
NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. The MODIS Rapid Response T · Public domain
Huaihe River in Pingqiao, Xinyang
そらみみ · CC BY-SA 4.0
Huaihe Xingying Ferry
Sinopitt · CC BY-SA 3.0

Tributaries

Where it flows, and what flows into it

Tributaries (9)

Also: Ying River, Hong River (Huai River), Guo River, Shiguan River, Huang River, Dongpi River, 新汴河, Shi River, Xi Feihe

In the same basin

Yangtze RiverChinaChina6,300 km31,900 m³/sHan RiverChinaChina1,532 km2,200 m³/sYalong RiverChinaChina1,323 km2,000 m³/sGan RiverChinaChina758 km1,700 m³/sJialing RiverChinaChina1,119 km2,100 m³/sWu RiverChinaChina1,150 km1,800 m³/sXiang RiverChinaChina801 km6,400 m³/sMin RiverChinaChina711 km2,300 m³/sYuan RiverChinaChina993 km2,000 m³/sDadu RiverChinaChina642 km1,400 m³/s

Nearby

Rivers nearby

Yangtze RiverChinaChina6,300 km31,900 m³/s203 km awayYellow RiverChinaChina5,464 km2,600 m³/s400 km awayHuangpu RiverChinaChina97 km370 m³/s337 km awayQiantang RiverChinaChina459 km1,400 m³/s362 km awayGan RiverChinaChina758 km1,700 m³/s445 km away

Where these numbers come from

Name, length, placesWikidata (Q213576) · CC0
Course, profile, basinRiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed along the river network from the point 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
Our other atlasesLakeyas, Peakyas — 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?

Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.

beachesCoastyaFind your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit
lakesLakeyasEvery lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Coming soonVisit
mountainsPeakyasEvery summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit
waterfallsCascadyasEvery waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Coming soonVisit
islandsIslandyasEvery island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit
riversRiveryasEvery river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
canyonsCanyonyasEvery canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit