River
Nen River
1,370 km from source to mouth · China.
ChinaFlows into Songhua River10th longest in China
In numbers
Length
1,370km
Average flow
690m³/s
Basin
244,000km²
Drop
422m
from 543 m to 121 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
1,370 km of river and 9 stops on the way: 3 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 543 m
- 540 kmNenjiang87,236 people
- 546 kmGan Rivertributary
- 703 kmNemor Rivertributary
- 909 kmHulan Ergi265,344 people
- 963 kmYalu Rivertributary
- 998 kmChuo'er Hetributary
- 1,188 kmYueliang pao reservoir99 km²
- 1,250 kmDalai93,297 people
- 1,273 kmHolin Goltributary
- 1,370 kmSonghua Riverat 121 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in the People's Republic of China
At the mouth it carries 688 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 3.6 seconds. It drops from 543 m to 121 m, 0.3 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 244,000 km², about the size of GB. 10.2 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
- Hulan ErgiLargest city on its banks · 265,344 people
- Qiqihar Sanjiazi Airport (NDG)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 21 km from the city
- On the water4 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From May to June and from August to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Nen River, month by month
Highest water: from August to September
Lowest water: from January to April. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): from November to March. Best months to visit: from May to June and from August to September.
From about 260 m³/s in the lowest month to 1,700 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
Nen River: the basin in numbers
248,988 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 10.2millionpeople live in the basin
- 42/km²people per km²
- 449maverage altitude of the basin
- 470mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 0.8°Caverage air temperature
- 12%protected areas
- 0.9%covered by lakes
- 6%permafrost
What covers the basin
- 33% Forest
- 23% Cropland
- 33% Pasture
- 1% 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
Nen River: what you find on the way
- 2Weirs
- 3Boat ramps
- 1Marinas
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.6 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Nen 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
- Yueliang pao reservoirkm 1,04499km²
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
Nen River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Songhua RiverChina1,434 km2,500 m³/sTributaries (6)
Also: Chuo'er He, Taoer River, Gan River, Yalu River, Nemor River, Holin Gol
In the same basin
RussiaWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q866875) · 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 | 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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Every waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Coming soonVisit 
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Every island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit 
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Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
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Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit