Songhua River

The Songhua River (Chinese: 松花江; pinyin: Sōnghuā Jiāng) or Sunggari River (Manchu:, Sunggari Ula) is a river in Northeast China, and is the largest tributary of the Heilong River (Amur), flowing about 1,434 kilometres (891 mi) from Changbai Mountains through Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces. The river drains 557,180 square miles (1,443,100 km2) of land, and has an annual discharge of 2,463 cubic metres per second (87,000 cu ft/s).

As the Second Songhua River, it joins the Amur at the town of Dongjiang. It is then interrupted by the Baishan, Hongshi and Fengman Dams, which are used for hydroelectricity production. Fengman Dam forms a lake that stretches 62 km upstream. Below the dam, the Second Songhua flows northwest until its largest tributary, the Nen River, joins it near Da'an and creates the Songhua. The Nen River drains the northern Manchurian Plain. The river travels east until it joins the Hulan River near Harbin. Then it passes between the northern end of the eastern Manchurian mountain system and the Lesser Khingan Range. The river then flows into the Amur River valley. The river freezes from late November until March. It has its highest flows when the mountain snow melts during the spring thaw. The river is navigable up to Harbin by medium-sized ships. Smaller craft can navigate the Songhua up to Jilin and the Nen River up to Qiqihar.

The extreme flatness of the Manchurian Plain has caused the river to meander widely over time. The result of the meandering is that the river is surrounded by a wide plain that is filled with swirls and curves, showing paths the river once took.

Read more about Songhua River:  Environmental Controversy, Geography

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