River
Yarkand River
858 km from source to mouth · China.
ChinaFlows into Tarim River
In numbers
Length
858km
Average flow
170m³/s
Basin
80,000km²
Drop
4,066m
from 5,090 m to 1,024 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
858 km of river and 6 stops on the way: 4 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmKarakoramat 5,090 m
- 209 kmShaksgam Rivertributary
- 345 kmTaxkorgan Hetributary
- 399 kmHuoshilafu17,351 people
- 415 kmKaqun18,749 people
- 485 kmAwati25,119 people
- 506 kmDunbage17,579 people
- 858 kmTarim Riverat 1,024 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 170 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 15 seconds. It drops from 5,090 m to 1,024 m, 4.7 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 80,000 km², about the size of CZ. 5.3 million people live in it. Highest water: from May to June and 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
- AwatiLargest city on its banks · 25,119 people
- Shache Airport (QSZ)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 50 km from the city
- From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Yarkand River, month by month
Highest water: from May to June and 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 16 m³/s in the lowest month to 390 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
Yarkand River: the basin in numbers
232,426 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 5.3millionpeople live in the basin
- 23/km²people per km²
- 2,477maverage altitude of the basin
- 81mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 5.4°Caverage air temperature
- 7%protected areas
- 0.3%covered by lakes
- 4%glaciers
- 18%permafrost
What covers the basin
- 3% Forest
- 5% Cropland
- 19% Pasture
- 1% Towns and cities
- 4% 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
Yarkand 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.
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/sNearby
Rivers nearby
China1,035 km140 m³/s6 km awayAksu River
Kyrgyzstan282 km250 m³/s0 km awayKarakash RiverChina740 km70 m³/s266 km awayYurungkax HeChina450 km2.3 m³/s266 km awayKashgar RiverChina765 km72 m³/s288 km awayCharyn River
Kazakhstan427 km35 m³/s403 km awayChilik RiverKazakhstan245 km32 m³/s403 km awayAt-Bashi RiverKyrgyzstan180 km33 m³/s457 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q559283) · 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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