Pearl River (China)

Pearl River
Pearl River in Guangzhou
The Pearl River system
Origin	various sources of its tributaries
Mouth	South China Sea
Basin countries	China and Vietnam
Length	2,200 km (1,400 mi)

Pearl River

Chinese

珠江

Transliterations
Mandarin
- Hanyu Pinyin	Zhū Jiāng
Cantonese
- Jyutping	zyu1 gong1

Guangdong River

Traditional Chinese

粵江

Simplified Chinese

粤江

Transliterations
Mandarin
- Hanyu Pinyin	Yuè jiāng
Cantonese
- Jyutping	jyut6 gong1

The Pearl River (Chinese: 珠江) or less commonly, the "Guangdong River" (= "Canton River" etc, simplified Chinese: 粤江), is an extensive river system in Southern China. The name Pearl River is usually used as a catchment term to refer to the watersheds of the Xi Jiang ("West River"), the Bei Jiang ("North River"), and the Dong Jiang ("East River"). These rivers are all considered tributaries of the Pearl River because they share a common delta, the Pearl River Delta. Measured from the furthest reaches of the Xi Jiang, the Pearl River system is China's third longest river (2,200 km, after the Yangtze River and the Yellow River), and second largest by volume (after the Yangtze). The 409,480 km² Pearl River Basin(珠江流域) drains the majority of Guangdong and Guangxi provinces, as well as parts of Yunnan, Guizhou, Hunan and Jiangxi provinces in China, and northeastern Vietnam.

As well as referring to the system as a whole, the Pearl River (Zhu Jiang) name is also applied to a specific branch within the system. This Pearl River is the widest distributary within the delta, although considerably 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 Zhujiang Kou. This bay separates Macau and Zhuhai from Hong Kong and Shenzhen.

1 Settlements
2 Crossings
3 Tributaries
4 See also
5 References

The Pearl River is named after a sandy or stony island in the middle of the river called "Sea Pearl" (海珠). This island is now incorporated in the bank, due to the river's change of course. In the 19th century, ships used an anchorage point in the river called Second Bar.

The Pearl River is thought to be one of the world's most polluted waterways.^[1]

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.

Zhujiang Brewery, one of the three largest domestic breweries in China, is located on the Pearl River Delta within the city of Guangzhou.