River
Dong River
523 km from source to mouth · China.
ChinaFlows into Pearl River
In numbers
Length
523km
Average flow
1,000m³/s
Basin
32,000km²
Drop
337m
from 333 m to -4 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
523 km of river and 13 stops on the way: 4 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 333 m
- 122 kmFengshuba Reservoir93 km²
- 122 kmFengshuba Dam
- 266 kmHeyuan463,907 people
- 267 kmXinfengjiang Reservoir265 km²
- 268 kmXinfeng Rivertributary
- 351 kmDalingtou Shuiku0.9 km²
- 353 kmMiaotan Shuiku1.6 km²
- 381 kmJiaodong Shuiku2.4 km²
- 391 kmHuizhou2,900,113 people
- 394 kmWest Lake0.9 km²
- 411 kmLuoyang123,144 people
- 470 kmShilong109,733 people
- 484 kmZeng Rivertributary
- 523 kmPearl Riverat -4 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Guangdong, China
At the mouth it carries 1,042 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 2.4 seconds. It drops from 333 m to -4 m, 0.6 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 32,000 km², about the size of BE. 17.1 million people live in it. Highest water: from June to July; lowest: from November to February. It is heavily dammed: reservoirs can hold 54% of a year's flow.
Where to start
- HuizhouLargest city on its banks · 2,900,113 people
- Huizhou Pingtan Airport (HUZ)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 20 km from the city
- On the water6 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From October to DecemberThe best months to visit
Dong River, month by month
Highest water: from June to July
Lowest water: from November to February. Best months to visit: from October to December.
From about 250 m³/s in the lowest month to 2,200 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
Dong River: the basin in numbers
33,310 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 17.1millionpeople live in the basin
- 525/km²people per km²
- 254maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,878mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 20.7°Caverage air temperature
- 5%protected areas
- 1.5%covered by lakes
- 18km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 57% Forest
- 14% Cropland
- 4% Pasture
- 17% 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
Dong River: what you find on the way
- 1Weirs
- 3Ferry piers
- 3MarinasSizhou Pagoda Dock
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.1 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Dong 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.
6lakes on its wayLakeyas
Lakes and reservoirs (6)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Fengshuba Reservoirkm 11693km²
- Xinfengjiang Reservoirkm 254265km²
- Dalingtou Shuikukm 3340.9km²
- Miaotan Shuikukm 3351.6km²
- Jiaodong Shuikukm 3622.4km²
- West Lakekm 3740.9km²
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.
Photos
Dong River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (5)
Also: Xinfeng River, Zeng River, Qiuxiang Jiang, Xizhi River, Huangxiang He
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q285137) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed along the river network from the point 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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