River
Yuan River
993 km from source to mouth · China.
ChinaFlows into Dongting Lake
In numbers
Length
993km
Average flow
2,000m³/s
Basin
90,000km²
Drop
758m
from 784 m to 26 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
993 km of river and 14 stops on the way: 9 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 784 m
- 5 kmDuyun198,516 people
- 13 kmXiaoweizhai58,913 people
- 77 kmXiasi25,490 people
- 99 kmKaili275,745 people
- 117 kmPanghai22,306 people
- 430 kmQiancheng9,260 people
- 440 kmWu Rivertributary
- 459 kmHongjiang476,000 people
- 485 kmAnjiang55,421 people
- 693 kmYou Shuitributary
- 773 kmWuqiangxi Dam
- 773 kmWuqiangxi Reservoir114 km²
- 900 kmChangde1,457,419 people
- 944 kmWeidi Hu2.6 km²
- 993 kmDongting Lakeat 26 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Hunan, China
At the mouth it carries 2,049 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 1.2 seconds. It drops from 784 m to 26 m, 0.8 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 90,000 km², about the size of RS. 15.6 million people live in it. Highest water: June; lowest: from December to February. Dams and reservoirs hold back a large share of its water (12% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- ChangdeLargest city on its banks · 1,457,419 people
- Changde Taohuayuan Airport (CGD)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 14 km from the city
- On the water29 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From September to NovemberThe best months to visit
Yuan River, month by month
Highest water: June
Lowest water: from December to February. Best months to visit: from September to November.
From about 860 m³/s in the lowest month to 4,600 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
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The basin
Yuan River: the basin in numbers
91,630 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 15.6millionpeople live in the basin
- 173/km²people per km²
- 578maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,333mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 15.9°Caverage air temperature
- 7%protected areas
- 0.3%covered by lakes
- 7.7km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 58% Forest
- 15% Cropland
- 26% Pasture
- 5% 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
Yuan River: what you find on the way
- 7Weirs
- 4LocksYuan River and 3 more
- 2Boat ramps
- 27Ferry piers
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.4 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Yuan 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
- Wuqiangxi Reservoirkm 798114km²
- Weidi Hukm 9742.6km²
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
Yuan River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (5)
Also: You Shui, Wu River, Wu River, Qingshui, Qu River
In the same basin
China6,300 km31,900 m³/sHan RiverChina1,532 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/sMin RiverChina711 km2,300 m³/sDadu RiverChina642 km1,400 m³/sWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1063190) · 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
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