River
Kaidu River
497 km from source to mouth · China.
ChinaFlows into Konqi He
In numbers
Length
497km
Average flow
7.5m³/s
Basin
31,750km²
Drop
1,957m
from 3,005 m to 1,048 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
497 km of river and 1 stops on the way: 1 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmTianshan Mountainsat 3,005 m
- 446 kmYanqi31,773 people
- 497 kmKonqi Heat 1,048 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 7.5 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 334 seconds. It drops from 3,005 m to 1,048 m, 3.9 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 31,750 km², about the size of BE. 170,000 people live in it. Highest water: from July to August; lowest: from December to March. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- YanqiLargest city on its banks · 31,773 people
- Korla Licheng Airport (KRL)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 61 km from the city
- From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Kaidu River, month by month
Highest water: from July to August
Lowest water: from December to March. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): from December to February. Best months to visit: from May to September.
From about 5.7 m³/s in the lowest month to 9.4 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
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
The basin
Kaidu River: the basin in numbers
27,222 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 170,000people live in the basin
- 6/km²people per km²
- 2,828maverage altitude of the basin
- 253mmof rain a year (basin average)
- -2.4°Caverage air temperature
- 11%protected areas
- 0.1%covered by lakes
- 2%glaciers
- 25%permafrost
What covers the basin
- 19% Forest
- 3% Cropland
- 56% Pasture
- 2% 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
Kaidu River: what you find on the way
- 7Weirs
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.1 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.
Photos
Kaidu River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Konqi HeChina550 km1.6 m³/sNearby
Rivers nearby
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q624934) · 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
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.
beaches
Find your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit 
lakes
Every lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Coming soonVisit 
mountains
Every summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit 
waterfalls
Every waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Coming soonVisit 
islands
Every island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit 
rivers
Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
canyons
Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit