River
Liao River
1,345 km from source to mouth · China.
ChinaFlows into Yellow Sea
In numbers
Length
1,345km
Average flow
630m³/s
Basin
232,000km²
Drop
324m
from 324 m to 0 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
1,345 km of river and 7 stops on the way: 3 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmLaoha Heat 324 m
- 40 kmLongshan465,249 people
- 319 kmXiliao Rivertributary
- 324 kmDongliao Hetributary
- 420 kmTieling459,985 people
- 428 kmDeshengtai Shuiku2.0 km²
- 432 kmDiaolongwan Shuiku1.5 km²
- 684 kmPanshan625,040 people
- 764 kmYellow Seaat 0 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in China
At the mouth it carries 630 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 4.0 seconds. It drops from 324 m to 0 m, 0.2 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 232,000 km², about the size of UG. 19.0 million people live in it. Highest water: from August to September; lowest: from December to March. It is heavily dammed: reservoirs can hold 83% of a year's flow.
Where to start
- PanshanLargest city on its banks · 625,040 people
- Anshan Teng'ao Airport / Anshan Air Base (AOG)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 68 km from the city
- From May to June and SeptemberThe best months to visit
Liao River, month by month
Highest water: from August to September
Lowest water: from December to March. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): from December to February. Best months to visit: from May to June and September.
From about 74 m³/s in the lowest month to 850 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
Liao River: the basin in numbers
191,234 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 19.0millionpeople live in the basin
- 100/km²people per km²
- 480maverage altitude of the basin
- 467mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 5.6°Caverage air temperature
- 7%protected areas
- 0.6%covered by lakes
- 7.6km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 13% Forest
- 29% Cropland
- 64% Pasture
- 3% 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
Liao River: what you find on the way
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.6 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Liao 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.
2lakes on its wayLakeyas
Lakes and reservoirs (2)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Deshengtai Shuikukm 4282.0km²
- Diaolongwan Shuikukm 4321.5km²
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
Liao River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (4)
Also: Hun River, Taizi River, Dongliao He
Nearby
Rivers nearby
China813 km600 m³/s238 km awayLuan RiverChina877 km140 m³/s277 km awayXiliao RiverChina829 km100 m³/s264 km awayCh'ongch'on River
North Korea217 km120 m³/s345 km awayHai RiverChina102 km720 m³/s413 km awayTaedong RiverNorth Korea439 km310 m³/s406 km awayYongding RiverChina747 km57 m³/s444 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q559661) · 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
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