River
Dadu River
642 km from source to mouth · China.
ChinaFlows into Min River
In numbers
Length
642km
Average flow
1,400m³/s
Basin
92,000km²
Drop
1,914m
from 2,269 m to 355 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
642 km of river and 13 stops on the way: 1 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmJiaomuzu Riverat 2,269 m
- 0 kmDuke Rivertributary
- 2 kmJiaomuzu Rivertributary
- 139 kmXiaojin Rivertributary
- 262 kmLuding Yaye Expressway Bridge
- 265 kmLuding Dam
- 267 kmDaduhe Railway Bridge Chuanzang
- 269 kmLuding Bridge
- 368 kmNanya Rivertributary
- 437 kmNiuri Rivertributary
- 535 kmGongzui Reservoir12 km²
- 620 kmQingyi Rivertributary
- 624 kmLeshan662,814 people
- 625 kmLeshan Giant Buddha
- 642 kmMin Riverat 355 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Sichuan province, southern China
At the mouth it carries 1,409 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 1.8 seconds. It drops from 2,269 m to 355 m, 3.0 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 92,000 km², about the size of JO. 4.2 million people live in it. Highest water: from August to September; lowest: from December to March. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- LeshanLargest city on its banks · 662,814 people
- Leshan Airport (LSG)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 14 km from the city
- On the water14 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From April to May and OctoberThe best months to visit
Dadu River, month by month
Highest water: from August to September
Lowest water: from December to March. Best months to visit: from April to May and October.
From about 220 m³/s in the lowest month to 3,100 m³/s in the highest. An estimate: the monthly flow is modelled from the lowest and highest months of WaterGAP (RiverATLAS, 1971–2000) and the rain and snow along the river (WorldClim). Dams change the real rhythm. The chip is the average air temperature; below it, the month's rain.
Plan the trip
Plan the trip: boat trips, a bed by the river, a car
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The basin
Dadu River: the basin in numbers
90,182 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 4.2millionpeople live in the basin
- 47/km²people per km²
- 3,349maverage altitude of the basin
- 906mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 4.6°Caverage air temperature
- 32%protected areas
- 5%permafrost
- 0.6km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 39% Forest
- 6% Cropland
- 60% Pasture
- 1% Towns and cities
RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.
Along the river
Dadu River: what you find on the way
- 13Weirs
- 8Locks
- 1WaterfallsDragon
- 8Ferry piersHanyuan Ferry Terminal, Dashu Ferry Terminal, Iron Bull Pier and 5 more
- 6MarinasLeshan Buddha excursion boats and 5 more
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.4 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Dadu River in our other atlases
What our sister atlases know about the waterfalls on this river, the lakes it flows through, the beaches at its mouth, the mountains where it rises and the islands off its mouth.
1lake on its wayLakeyas
Lakes and reservoirs (1)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Gongzui Reservoirkm 52912km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
From space
The source and the mouth, seen from orbit
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. The glowing line is the river as drawn by RiverATLAS.
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Min RiverChina711 km2,300 m³/sTributaries (6)
Also: Qingyi River, Jiaomuzu River, Nanya River, Xiaojin River, Niuri River, Duke River
In the same basin
China6,300 km31,900 m³/sHan RiverChina1,532 km2,200 m³/sHuai RiverChina1,110 km1,200 m³/sYalong RiverChina1,323 km2,000 m³/sGan RiverChina758 km1,700 m³/sJialing RiverChina1,119 km2,100 m³/sWu RiverChina1,150 km1,800 m³/sXiang RiverChina801 km6,400 m³/sYuan RiverChina993 km2,000 m³/sJinsha RiverChina3,005 km4,500 m³/sWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1075393) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth given by Wikidata |
| Flow | WaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate along the river | WorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Towns, bridges, dams | Wikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0 |
| Along the river | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Our other atlases | Lakeyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; HydroLAKES · CC BY 4.0; NOAA OISST |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?
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