River
Imjin River
274 km from source to mouth · South Korea and North Korea.
South Korea and North KoreaFlows into Han River4th longest in South Korea
In numbers
Length
274km
Average flow
180m³/s
Basin
8,139km²
Drop
391m
from 391 m to 0 m
Countries
2
The journey
From source to mouth
274 km of river and 3 stops on the way: 1 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 391 m
- 208 kmHantan Rivertributary
- 256 kmTongil Bridge
- 263 kmMunsan43,208 people
- 274 kmHan Riverat 0 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in North Korea
At the mouth it carries 177 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 14 seconds. It drops from 391 m to 0 m, 1.4 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 8,139 km², about the size of PR. 1.3 million people live in it. Highest water: from August to September; lowest: from December to March. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- MunsanLargest city on its banks · 43,208 people
- Seoul Gimpo International Airport (GMP)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 34 km from the cityCar hire in SeoulDiscover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water2 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- May and OctoberThe best months to visit
Imjin 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 25 m³/s in the lowest month to 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
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
Imjin River: the basin in numbers
8,114 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 1.3millionpeople live in the basin
- 156/km²people per km²
- 340maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,403mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 9.1°Caverage air temperature
- 0.2%covered by lakes
- 0.0km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 85% Forest
- 17% Cropland
- 2% Pasture
- 8% 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
Imjin River: what you find on the way
- 11Weirs
- 2Ferry piers
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.7 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Imjin 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.
2mountains at the sourcePeakyas
1island off the mouthIslandyas
Mountains at the source (2)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Maebongsan (Poptong)14 km away1,578m
- Hwagaesan3.0 km away
Islands off the mouth (1)
Within 30 km of the mouth, by Islandyas
- Ganghwa Island24 km away302km²
Islandyas is coming soonOpen Islandyas ↗
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
Imjin River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (2)
Also: Hantan River, Yŏkkok-ch'ŏn
Nearby
Rivers nearby
ChinaWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q495534) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed along the river network from the point 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 | Peakyas, Islandyas — 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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