Rivers & Lakes in China
   China has more than 1,500 rivers each with a catchment
area of over 1,000 sq km. The majority of the rivers flow from west to east or south and empty into the western Pacific. Some rivers like the Nujiang and Yarlung Zangbo drain into the south Asian river system that flows into the Indian Ocean. The Ertix in Xinjiang flows north, passing beyond China's borders to empty into the Arctic.
   Some rivers like the Tarim and Ulungur located in far west China and other dry parts of the country have no outlets to the sea.
   The Yangtze, which originates in the Tangula Mountains in Qinghai Province, has a catchment area exceeding 1.8 million sq km. With a length of 6,300 km, it is Asia's longest river and the third largest in the world. The Yangtze annually empties 1,000 billion cu m of water into the East China Sea after meandering through Qinghai, Sichuan, Tibet, Yunnan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Anhui and Jiangsu.
   The Yellow River, China's second largest river, also originates in Qinghai Province. With a length of 5,500 km, it has a catchment area of more than 750,000 sq km. It flows through the northeastern part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Inner Mongolia, the Northwest China Loess Highland and the North China Plain before discharging into the Bohai Bay.