Basin
The Salween basin is one of the largest in Southeast Asia. It is approximately 324,000 square kilometres (125,000 sq mi) large, spreading across three countries and four Burmese states. For much of its length, the Salween's course is nearly parallel to that of the much larger Mekong in the east. Although the commonly accepted name is Salween, the river is known by a handful of other names regionally: Nu in China, Thanlwin in southern Burma, and Salawin on the border of Thailand and Burma.
Several major sub-continental drainage basins border on the Salween. The Mekong basin forms nearly the entire eastern boundary of the watershed, while the Irrawaddy River flows southwards on the west side of the basin. The smallest boundary is formed by the Yangtze to the extreme north. These three rivers bound nearly 80 percent of the Salween basin, but there are other smaller drainage areas to the southeast and southwest, some emptying into the Andaman Sea/Indian Ocean and some into the Gulf of Thailand.
Read more about this topic: Salween River