River
Hotan River
1,035 km from source to mouth · China.
ChinaFlows into Tarim River
In numbers
Length
1,035km
Average flow
140m³/s
Basin
43,600km²
Drop
3,788m
from 4,809 m to 1,021 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
1,035 km of river and 10 stops on the way: 8 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 4,809 m
- 489 kmLangru16,505 people
- 517 kmLayka29,032 people
- 541 kmQaraqash66,541 people
- 546 kmYing’awati23,624 people
- 554 kmYingye'er11,485 people
- 568 kmSegezikule9,576 people
- 599 kmKawake10,992 people
- 616 kmTawakule26,983 people
- 672 kmKarakash Rivertributary
- 672 kmYurungkax Hetributary
- 1,035 kmTarim Riverat 1,021 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in the People's Republic of China
At the mouth it carries 142 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 18 seconds. It drops from 4,809 m to 1,021 m, 3.7 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 43,600 km², about the size of DK. 1.4 million people live in it. Highest water: from July to August; lowest: from November to February. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- QaraqashLargest city on its banks · 66,541 people
- Hotan Airport (HTN)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 28 km from the city
- From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Hotan River, month by month
Highest water: from July to August
Lowest water: from November to February. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): from December to February. Best months to visit: from May to September.
From about 0.0 m³/s in the lowest month to 32 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
Hotan River: the basin in numbers
76,060 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 1.4millionpeople live in the basin
- 18/km²people per km²
- 3,018maverage altitude of the basin
- 40mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 3.7°Caverage air temperature
- 0.1%covered by lakes
- 8%glaciers
- 30%permafrost
What covers the basin
- 3% Forest
- 2% Cropland
- 17% Pasture
- 1% Towns and cities
- 8% Ice
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
Hotan River: what you find on the way
- 6Weirs
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.3 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
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
Tarim RiverChina2,030 km920 m³/sTributaries (2)
Nearby
Rivers nearby
China858 km170 m³/s6 km awayAksu River
Kyrgyzstan282 km250 m³/s6 km awayKarakash RiverChina740 km70 m³/s269 km awayYurungkax HeChina450 km2.3 m³/s269 km awayKashgar RiverChina765 km72 m³/s294 km awayCharyn River
Kazakhstan427 km35 m³/s403 km awayChilik RiverKazakhstan245 km32 m³/s403 km awayAt-Bashi RiverKyrgyzstan180 km33 m³/s461 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q625575) · 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 |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
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