Pearl River

The Pearl River, also known by its Chinese name Zhujiang or Zhu Jiang in Mandarin pinyin or Chu Kiang and formerly often known as the Canton River, is an extensive river system in southern China. The name "Pearl River" is also often used as a catch-all for the watersheds of the Xi ("West"), Bei ("North"), and Dong ("East") rivers of Guangdong. These rivers are all considered tributaries of the Pearl River because they share a common delta, the Pearl River Delta. Measured from the farthest reaches of the Xi River, the 2,400-kilometer-long (1,500 mi) Pearl River system is China's third-longest river, after the Yangtze River and the Yellow River, and second largest by volume, after the Yangtze. The 453,700 km² (175,200 sq mi) Pearl River Basin (珠江流域) drains the majority of Liangguang (Guangdong and Guangxi provinces), as well as parts of Yunnan, Guizhou, Hunan and Jiangxi in China; it also drains northern parts of Vietnam's Northeast Cao Bằng and Lạng Sơn provinces.

Pearl River 珠江/Zhū Jiāng/Zyu1 Gong1
Pearl River in Humen near Humen Town
The course of the Pearl River system through China and Vietnam
Native name	珠江
Location
Country	China
Province	Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macau, Cao Bằng, Lạng Sơn
Physical characteristics
Source	various sources of its tributaries
Mouth	South China Sea
• location	and Guangdong
Length	2,400 km (1,500 mi)
Basin size	453,700 km2 (175,200 sq mi)[1]
Discharge
• average	9,500 m3/s (340,000 cu ft/s)[2]
• maximum	34,000 m3/s (1,200,000 cu ft/s)

As well as referring to the system as a whole, the Pearl River (Zhu Jiang) name is applied to a specific branch within the system. This Pearl River is the widest distributary within the delta, although notably short. The waters that converge east of the Bei Jiang are first referred to as the Pearl River just north of Guangzhou. The Pearl River is famed as the river that flows through Guangzhou. The Pearl River's estuary, Bocca Tigris, is regularly dredged so as to keep it open for ocean vessels. The mouth of the Pearl River forms a large bay in the southeast of the delta, the Pearl River Estuary, the Bocca Tigris separates Shiziyang in the north, Lingdingyang in the south, and Jiuzhouyang at the southern tip of the estuary surrounded by the Wanshan Archipelago. This bay separates Macau and Zhuhai from Hong Kong and Shenzhen.

The Pearl River is so named because of the pearl-colored shells that lie at the bottom of the river in the section that flows through the city of Guangzhou. Numerous brands are named after the river, like Zhujiang Brewery (Guangzhou) being one of the three largest domestic breweries in China, and Pearl River Bridge (Guangzhou) as a popular food manufacturer. A 500 kV power line, suspended from three of the tallest pylons in the world, the Pylons of Pearl River Crossing, crosses the river near its mouth.

River Pearl and Canton Tower