Amur

The Amur (Chinese: Heilong Jiang 黑龙江 or 黑龍江, literal meaning: "Black Dragon River") is one of the ten world's largest rivers.

Flowing in northeast Asia over 4400 km (2,700 mi) from the mountains of northeastern China, to the Sea of Okhotsk (near Nikolayevsk-na-Amure), it drains a remarkable watershed that includes diverse landscapes of desert, steppe, tundra, and taiga from East-North Asia.

The Amur proper is the 2,874 km after the junction of two rivers:

• North: the Shilka (Shileke 石勒喀河), originated on the eastern slope of the Kente Mountain (肯特山) in Mongolia.
• South: the Argun (Erguna 額爾古納河), originated on the western slope of the Daxing'an Range (大興安嶺) in northeastern China.

The two sources join in Moguhe Village (洛古河村), western Mohe County (漠河县), Heilongjiang province, China, and become the Amur proper.

Major tributaries are:

• the Songhua,
• the Zeya (結雅河),
• the Ussuri (烏蘇里江), and
• the Bureya (布列亞河)

The Amur is bordered by Heilongjiang Province and Khabarovsk Krai, and passes through the following cities:

• South bank (China)
  • Heihe
  • Tongjiang
  • Huma
  • Jiayin
• North bank (Russia)
  • Khabarovsk
  • Komsomolsk-na-Amure
  • Nikolayevsk-na-Amure
  • Blagoveshchensk

Amur leopard is an endangered species with about 50 left.

See also: Geography of China

zh-tw:黑龍江