The 'Liao He' (遼河, Liao River) is the principal
river in southern
Manchuria (1345 km). The province of
Liaoning and the
Liaodong Peninsula derive their name from the river.
The Liao He originates as two stems in the west: the 'Laoha He' in southeastern
Inner Mongolia, the 'Xinkai He' (dry in its upper reaches except after thunderstorms) further north, and the 'Hulin He' (which almost never reaches the main stem of the river) in the extreme northwest of Liaoning. The eastern stem of the river is known as the 'Dongliao He' and rises in low mountains in central Liaoning. The two stems of the river meet near the junction of Liaoning,
Jilin and Inner Mongolia and flow across a vast plain to the
Bohai Gulf. There are two major tributaries of the river received on this plain: the '
Hun He' and the 'Taizi He', both of which flow down from the
Qian Shan range.
Several major cities are located on the Hun He (which translates as "the muddy river"), including the provincial capital,
Shenyang and
Fushun.
Anshan is located in the far southeast of the basin, and
Yingkou near the mouth.
The Liao He drains an area of over 232,000 square kilometres, but its mean discharge is quite small at only about 500 cubic metres per second - about one-twentieth that of the
Pearl River.
Like the
Huang He, the Liao He has an exceedingly high
sediment load because many parts of it flow through powdery
loess.
See also
★
North China Plain
★
Loess Plateau
★
List of rivers of Asia
★
List of rivers in China