River
Songhua River
1,434 km from source to mouth · China.
ChinaFlows into Amur River9th longest in China
In numbers
Length
1,434km
Average flow
2,500m³/s
Basin
524,000km²
Drop
244m
from 288 m to 44 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
1,434 km of river and 24 stops on the way: 6 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmHeaven Lakeat 288 m
- 2 kmBaishan Shuiku85 km²
- 68 kmHuifa Hetributary
- 170 kmSonghua Lake193 km²
- 188 kmLinjiangmen Bridge
- 190 kmJilin1,895,865 people
- 212 kmNine Station Songhua River Railway Bridge
- 367 kmYinma Rivertributary
- 460 kmSongyuan113,611 people
- 464 kmFuyu138,704 people
- 501 kmNen Rivertributary
- 507 kmSecond Songhua Rivertributary
- 628 kmLalin Hetributary
- 716 kmYangmingtan Bridge
- 725 kmHarbin10,009,854 people
- 726 kmHarbin Railway Bridge
- 733 kmAshi Rivertributary
- 746 kmHulan Rivertributary
- 791 kmShaoling Hetributary
- 933 kmChalin Hetributary
- 935 kmMayitributary
- 1,026 kmMudan Rivertributary
- 1,027 kmYilan71,180 people
- 1,077 kmTangwang Hetributary
- 1,284 kmFujin89,442 people
- 1,434 kmAmur Riverat 44 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in China and North Korea
At the mouth it carries 2,470 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 1.0 seconds. It drops from 288 m to 44 m, 0.2 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 524,000 km², about the size of YE. 56.8 million people live in it. Highest water: from August to September; lowest: from December to March. Dams and reservoirs hold back a large share of its water (23% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- HarbinLargest city on its banks · 10,009,854 people
- Harbin Taiping International Airport (HRB)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 34 km from the city
- On the water11 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From May to June and SeptemberThe best months to visit
Songhua River, month by month
Highest water: from August to September
Lowest water: from December to March. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): from November to March. Best months to visit: from May to June and September.
From about 780 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
Songhua River: the basin in numbers
552,630 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 56.8millionpeople live in the basin
- 105/km²people per km²
- 385maverage altitude of the basin
- 544mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 1.8°Caverage air temperature
- 9%protected areas
- 1.0%covered by lakes
- 3%permafrost
- 16km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 37% Forest
- 33% Cropland
- 23% 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
Songhua River: what you find on the way
- 2Weirs
- 7Locks
- 9Ferry piers
- 2Marinas
- 3River beaches
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.8 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Songhua 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.
2lakes on its wayLakeyas
Lakes and reservoirs (2)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Baishan Shuikukm 285km²
- Songhua Lakekm 176193km²
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
Songhua River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Amur River
Russia2,824 km12,800 m³/sTributaries (13)
Also: Hulan River, Huifa He, Nemor River, Yinma River, Mayi, Lalin He, Second Songhua River, Tangwang He, Ashi River, Shaoling He, Chalin He
In the same basin
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q210326) · 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
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?
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