Salween River

Salween River

The Salween (Burmese: သံလွင်မြစ်, ; Mon: သာန်လာန်, ; Tibetan: རྒྱལ་མོ་རྔུལ་ཆུ།, Wylie: rGyl mo rNGul chu; Chinese: 怒江; pinyin: Nù Jiāng; Shan: ၼမ်ႉၶူင်း; Thai: แม่น้ำสาละวิน, ; also spelled Salwine; Salawin, Thai; Gyalmo Ngulchu, Tibetan; Thanlwin, Burmese; Nu Jiang, which means "Angry River" in Chinese (The river is actually named after the Nu tribe that lives in the area but Chinese being no phonetic script had to use a character with a similar sound as Nu and that happen to be the character for angry), is a river, about 2,815 kilometres (1,749 mi) long, that flows from the Tibetan Plateau into the Andaman Sea in Southeast Asia. It drains a narrow and mountainous watershed of 324,000 square kilometres (125,000 sq mi) that extends into the countries of China, Burma and Thailand. Steep canyon walls line the swift, powerful and undammed Salween, one of the longest free-flowing rivers in the world. Its extensive drainage basin supports a biodiversity comparable with the Mekong and is home to about 7 million people. In 2003, key parts of the mid-region watershed of the river were included within the Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The first people to live on the Salween arrived in the region thousands of years ago, and are still relatively isolated from the rest of the world. The river is only navigable up to 90 kilometres (56 mi) from the mouth, and only in the rainy season.

The Burma Road was constructed between 1937 and 1938 during the Second Sino-Japanese War and crossed the river at the Huitong bridge. The Huitong bridge was blown by the retreating Chinese army and the river became the frontline from 1942 to 1944. The Salween Campaign of World War II, was launched in order to liberate occupied China and open the Burma Road again and connect it to the Ledo Road.

Logging began on the mountains surrounding the Salween in the late 20th century, and has damaged the river's ecology. In recent years, there have been a number of proposals to dam the Salween river in China, prompting environmental concerns and fierce opposition. Construction of at lease one dam on a tributary of the Salween are currently underway in China's Yunnan province, and more are expected to follow.

Read more about Salween River:  Geography, Basin, History, Dams, Tributaries, Protected Areas

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