Yangtze River

The Yangtze River (Chinese长江/长江, Pinyin Changjiang? / I, Long River ') is China's longest river. With 6380 kilometers, of which 2800 km are navigable, it is also the longest river in Asia and after the Nile and the Amazon 's third -longest river in the world. Its headwaters located in the highlands of Tibet in Qinghai. At its mouth into the East China Sea, he leads an annual average of 31,900 cubic meters of water per second.

The Yangtze River plays a major role in the way the Chinese. He divides the country into northern and southern China and was the site of several key events in Chinese history. These would include its crossing by the People's Liberation Army during the Chinese Civil War on April 21, 1949 and which survived until the mid-20th century law of Western powers to navigate the river with gunboats.

River Name

The official name is Chang Jiang (长江, Long River ').
The Tibetan name is Dri Chu (Chinese治曲), German, cow - river ' ( Dri is the female grunting ox or yak).
The Chinese name of this section ( upper reaches ) is Tongtian He通天河, which translates as "river, which crosses the sky " means.
Before entering the Red Basin is called the Jinsha River Yangtze (金沙江, JinshaJiang, Gold Sand River '), a reference to gold deposits in this region.
Chuan Jiang (Chinese川江, Pinyin Chuan Jiang) his name from Yibin (Sichuan ) to Yichang (Hubei)
The Chinese扬子江, Yángzǐjiāng (also Chinese扬子江/扬子江, Pinyin Yángzǐ Jiang? / I ), which applies only to the estuary ( in Chinese parlance, the term for the lower reaches of the Changjiang from the cities of Yizheng and Yangzhou down) is in the non- Chinese usage, the general name for the river for its entire length. From it the traditional German name derives Yangtze River.

River

The Yangtze River originates in the Tanggula Shan, within a multi-hundred square kilometers of the source area to the west of the province of Qinghai.

Nearly 1500 kilometers downstream, the river forms a sharp hairpin ( ⊙ 28.26722222222299.287777777778 ); in the further course, distracted by a limestone massif, the previously flowing to the southeast flow returns after several changes of direction around at the Great Bend of Shigu ( ⊙ 26.8717599.959861111111 ) and continues through the Tiger Leaping Gorge in a northeasterly direction.

In Shiluoke the river again changes direction and flows south to the village Chitian. After a 90 degree turn towards the east of the river around 55 kilometers from the place Rubeidi, where he again turns in a northeasterly direction. In Gelipingzhen the river changes direction to the east, the Yangtze River retains until shortly before the mouth of the south coming from Xiao Jiang at Yenjuping. From there the river flows primarily in northeastern direction.

In Xinshizhen a 180 ° loop followed to change direction to east-southeast is to the city of Yibin. There, the Min Jiang flows from the northwest coming in the Yangtze River ( up to here: Jinshan Jiang ) flowing from there north-easterly direction to Chongqing.

Importance

Shipping

The Yangtze River is of Yibin City (305 m above sea level) navigable for 2800 kilometers to its mouth in the Pacific. About 400 kilometers downstream is Chongqing, later Wanxian. Below the Three Gorges Dam are Yichang, Wuhan Hankou, Jiujiang, Wuhu and Nanjing important inland ports.

Construction of the ship lift next to the big five-stage lock was repeatedly postponed due to financial and technical problems. By 2012, however, a 120 -meter long ship lift to be built, the ships of up to 3,000 tons (~ Class V) can convey to the difference in height much faster than through the five-stage lock for ships of up to 10,000 tons (~ Large coaster ) to cope.

At the mouth is an older part of the port of Shanghai.

Canyons and reservoirs

At its upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze to Yichang, the many canyons.

The best known are the Three Gorges Qutang, Wuxia and Xiling between Chongqing and Yichang, which are now flooded by the controversial construction of a new large-scale power plant, the Three Gorges Dam, so that was a 600- km long reservoir, the water level when filling on 175 m above the valley floor.

Due to the massive deforestation of mountain slopes on the Yangtze River middle reaches in Eastern Tibet done by landslides ( debris flows ) massive sediment input into the river (about 2 billion cubic meters / year), so that it also becomes a " Yellow River " (name of Huang He in North China ) was. This is a considerable risk of silting of the Three Gorges Reservoir. Since 1998, a logging ban on the mountain slopes of Tibet, and forests are reforested.

Below the large dams, the river flows more slowly and wider through the plains of central China. The first major of the natural retention basins, exercise an important function as protection against flooding, the Dongting Lake. Depending on the different water management during the year it changes, as well as the largest lake in China, the Poyang lake, its expansion. About the Grand Canal that crosses the Yangtze River in Yangzhou, a connection to the Yellow River. In Shanghai it flows into a delta in the East China Sea.

In addition to the construction of the Three Gorges Dam there is a second large-scale project, the South-North Water Transfer Project, a water diversion system through which the suffering from lack of water north of China is to be supplied with water from the Yangtze River. The first route along the Grand Canal is already used, but should be strengthened; two more lines in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River are in the planning stage.

Directly below the Three Gorges Dam is the Gezhouba Dam.

Human Settlements

Major cities in the Yangtze River are Chongqing, Shashi, Wuhan, Nanjing and Shanghai. Because of its width, the river is spanned by some pretty impressive bridges, including the Runyang Bridge or the Wuhan First Bridge.

Ecological status

The end of 2007 put a Sino -Swiss research team in Bern before the results of an investigation. The report of the "Yangtze Freshwater Dolphin Expedition " under the guidance of the Institute of Hydrobiology / Chinese Academy of Sciences in Wuhan and the Baiji.org Foundation astonished: Despite the introduction of large amounts of pollutants, the quality of the water fall better than previously thought. The chemists attributed this to the effect of dilution: The Yangtze River with its many tributaries lead to huge amounts of water, which diluted the concentration of pollutants, the researchers wrote in their report. 2012 complained Chinese researchers in the journal Science, however, a "rising contamination " and an " unprecedented pollution" of the river.

Power generation

At the Three Gorges Dam, the water falls through the openings of the wall in the 113 -meter deep river. 26 turbines and generators produce electricity.

According to Chinese sources, the power plant produces an average of 9500 MW electricity (for comparison: in Germany is about six times, yet five times in China this power generated ).

Flood protection

The Yangtze River is known for its floods, which cost the lives of three million people in the last 100 years. More and more often it came to threatening flood, alone six times in the last 15 years. The dam is now to take up the excess water.

However, this is nothing against the causes of "nature" - made disaster, critics complain. The Yangtze River, although always appeared regularly on the shore. However, this also the arable land was regularly covered with fertile river mud and the area an attractive growing area.

The terrible flooding, however, piled up in recent years in an unnatural way. Responsible for this are, firstly, the deforestation that had previously received large amounts of rainwater. On the other hand, more and more lakes were drained in this area in order to create land for the growing population. During high water the river can no longer escape into natural floodplains and flooded towns and villages.

Tributaries of the Yangtze River will be probably affected by floods in the future, as the dam can not help there.

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