Yangtze River

The Yangtze River (长江, Cháng Jiāng, meaning 'long river') stretches 6,300 kilometers from its source in the glaciers of the Tanggula Mountains on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau to its vast delta at the East China Sea near Shanghai. It is Asia's longest river and the world's third-longest. Its course passes through an extraordinary array of landscapes — from high-altitude Tibetan grasslands through the deep gorges of Yunnan, the Sichuan Basin's red hills, the Three Gorges (三峡, Sanxia), the fertile lakes and plains of Hunan and Hubei, and finally the densely populated delta. The river originates in Yunnan province at its upper reaches, where the headwaters begin their long descent.

The Yangtze Basin spans nearly one-fifth of China's land area and supports an enormous diversity of ecosystems. In its upper reaches, alpine meadows and conifer forests give way to temperate broadleaf forests in the middle reaches, and subtropical wetlands in the lower basin. The river's floodplains, lakes (including Poyang and Dongting — China's largest freshwater lakes), and wetlands are vital habitats for countless species. The Yangtze is related_to lotus (莲花, lianhua), which grows in its wetland shallows, and to rice, as the basin is China's primary rice-growing region. Mulberry groves (桑树, sangshu) line the river's banks, supporting sericulture. The river is also related_to the giant panda, whose habitat extends into the Yangtze basin.

The Yangtze has been the central artery of Chinese civilization for over 5,000 years. Its waters have enabled the transport of grain, tea, silk, and porcelain between the interior and the coast. The region south of the lower river is called Jiangnan (江南, literally 'south of the Yangtze'), and the river is related_to jiangnan as its defining geographical feature. The river is related_to sichuan, through which it flows, to mount-tai in the broader context of China's sacred geography, and to yunnan as the source of its headwaters. The Yangtze River Delta is one of the world's great economic zones, where the river's alluvial gifts have built one of the most densely populated and productive regions on Earth.