Songhua River

The Songhua River (Chinese: 松花江; pinyin: Sōnghuā Jiāng), also known as Haixi (Chinese: 海西; pinyin: Hǎixī), the Sungari River (Manchu: , Sunggari Ula), and the Xingal, is a river in Northeast China, and is the largest tributary of the Heilong River (Amur), flowing about 1,434 kilometres (891 mi) from Changbai Mountains through Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces. The river drains 1,443,100 square kilometres (557,180 sq mi) of land, and has an annual discharge of 2,463 cubic metres per second (87,000 cu ft/s).

As the Second Songhua River, it joins the Amur at Tongjiang, Heilongjiang. It is then interrupted by the Baishan, Hongshi and Fengman dams, which are used for hydroelectricity production. Fengman Dam forms a lake that stretches 62 kilometres (39 mi) upstream. Below the dam, the Second Songhua flows northwest until its largest tributary, the Nen River, joins it near Da'an and creates the Songhua. The Nen River drains the northern Manchurian Plain. The river travels east until it joins the Hulan River near Harbin. Then it passes between the northern end of the eastern Manchurian mountain system and the Lesser Khingan Range. The river then flows into the Amur River valley. The river freezes from late November until March. It has its highest flows when the mountain snow melts during the spring thaw. The river is navigable up to Harbin by medium-sized ships. Smaller craft can navigate the Songhua up to Jilin and the Nen River up to Qiqihar.