River
Min River
577 km from source to mouth · China.
ChinaFlows into East China Sea
In numbers
Length
577km
Average flow
1,800m³/s
Basin
60,800km²
Drop
413m
from 413 m to 0 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
577 km of river and 13 stops on the way: 7 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 413 m
- 113 kmDajin Lake58 km²
- 308 kmFutun Xitributary
- 330 kmNanping467,875 people
- 427 kmShuikou3,760 people
- 441 kmShuikou Dam
- 499 kmRong’an5,510 people
- 534 kmAofengzhou Bridge
- 538 kmChengmen4,280 people
- 553 kmQingzhou Bridge
- 563 kmMin’ancun5,000 people
- 564 kmLangqi Minjiang Bridge
- 564 kmTingjiang5,320 people
- 564 kmHouyu5,180 people
- 577 kmEast China Seaat 0 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Fujian province, China
At the mouth it carries 1,773 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 1.4 seconds. It drops from 413 m to 0 m, 0.7 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 60,800 km², about the size of LV. 10.1 million people live in it. Highest water: from May to June; lowest: from November to February. Its dams hold back little of its water (9.7% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- NanpingLargest city on its banks · 467,875 people
- Sanming Shaxian Airport (SQJ)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 42 km from the city
- On the water5 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From October to NovemberThe best months to visit
Min River, month by month
Highest water: from May to June
Lowest water: from November to February. Best months to visit: from October to November.
From about 450 m³/s in the lowest month to 4,100 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
Min River: the basin in numbers
60,892 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 10.1millionpeople live in the basin
- 172/km²people per km²
- 532maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,769mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 17.7°Caverage air temperature
- 4%protected areas
- 0.4%covered by lakes
- 5.4km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 83% Forest
- 11% Cropland
- 2% Pasture
- 6% 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
Min River: what you find on the way
- 7Weirs
- 3Ferry piers
- 2Marinas
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.3 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Min 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
1mountain at the sourcePeakyas
1island off the mouthIslandyas
Lakes and reservoirs (1)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Dajin Lakekm 9558km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Islands off the mouth (1)
Within 30 km of the mouth, by Islandyas
- Langqi Island9.1 km away40km²
Islandyas is coming soonOpen Islandyas ↗
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
Min River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (3)
Also: Futun Xi, Jian River, Shaxi
TaiwanWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q976458) · 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, Peakyas, Islandyas — 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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