River
Min River
711 km from source to mouth · China.
ChinaFlows into Yangtze River
In numbers
Length
711km
Average flow
2,300m³/s
Basin
136,000km²
Drop
3,139m
from 3,393 m to 254 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
711 km of river and 12 stops on the way: 4 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 3,393 m
- 136 kmDiexi Lake0.9 km²
- 160 kmHeishui Rivertributary
- 228 kmZagunao Rivertributary
- 260 kmCaopo Rivertributary
- 415 kmJin Rivertributary
- 436 kmMeishan1,107,742 people
- 520 kmLeshan662,814 people
- 522 kmDadu Rivertributary
- 522 kmLeshan Giant Buddha
- 583 kmMabian Rivertributary
- 631 kmJuexi43,527 people
- 681 kmYibin4,887,242 people
- 711 kmYangtze Riverat 254 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
Tributary of Yangtze river in Sichuan, China
At the mouth it carries 2,286 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 1.1 seconds. It drops from 3,393 m to 254 m, 4.4 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 136,000 km², about the size of GR. 19.4 million people live in it. Highest water: from August to September; lowest: from January to April. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- YibinLargest city on its banks · 4,887,242 people
- Yibin Wuliangye Airport (YBP)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 16 km from the city
- On the water20 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- Kayak and canoe1 put-ins and rapids mapped (OpenStreetMap)
- From April to May and OctoberThe best months to visit
Min River, month by month
Highest water: from August to September
Lowest water: from January to April. Best months to visit: from April to May and October.
From about 420 m³/s in the lowest month to 5,200 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
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The basin
Min River: the basin in numbers
135,296 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 19.4millionpeople live in the basin
- 144/km²people per km²
- 2,930maverage altitude of the basin
- 958mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 6.4°Caverage air temperature
- 28%protected areas
- 0.1%covered by lakes
- 4%permafrost
- 1.1km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 38% Forest
- 12% Cropland
- 49% Pasture
- 4% 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
Min River: what you find on the way
- 31Weirs
- 3LocksMin River
- 3WaterfallsDragon
- 1Rapids
- 4Boat ramps
- 10Ferry piersBaxiandu Cruise Terminal, Iron Bull Pier and 8 more
- 6MarinasLeshan Buddha excursion boats and 5 more
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.5 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Min 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.
1lake on its wayLakeyas
Lakes and reservoirs (1)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Diexi Lakekm 1320.9km²
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
Min River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Yangtze RiverChina6,300 km31,900 m³/sTributaries (8)
Also: Jin River, Caopo River, Zagunao River, Mabian River, Heishui River, Yuexi River, Xiaoxing River
In the same basin
China1,532 km2,200 m³/sHuai RiverChina1,110 km1,200 m³/sYalong RiverChina1,323 km2,000 m³/sGan RiverChina758 km1,700 m³/sJialing RiverChina1,119 km2,100 m³/sWu RiverChina1,150 km1,800 m³/sXiang RiverChina801 km6,400 m³/sYuan RiverChina993 km2,000 m³/sJinsha RiverChina3,005 km4,500 m³/sTuo RiverChina655 km460 m³/sWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q729269) · 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 | 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
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