Xiang River
The Xiang River (also as Xiangjiang, Xiangjiang River, or simply as Xiang, Chinese: 湘江, 湘水 or 湘; pinyin: Xiāng Jiāng, Xiāng Shǔi; Wade–Giles: hsiāng chiāng or hsiāng shuǐ), in older transliterations as the Siang River or Hsiang River, is a river in southern China. The river gave Hunan its Chinese abbreviation, the same as Xiang (湘).
Geography
Originating from Haiyang Mountain (海陽山) in Lingui of Guangxi, the Xiang is the largest river in Hunan and one of the largest tributaries of Yangtze River. It is 856 kilometres (532 mi) long and 670 kilometres (420 mi) of it is in Hunan.
People say the Xiang and the Lijiang River share the same origin, because the upper reaches of the two rivers are connected by the ancient Lingqu Canal, which is located in Xing'an County, Guangxi. According to a traditional saying, 70 per cent of the water in Lingqu flows into the Xiang and 30 percent flows into the Lijiang. In the past, the canal, along with the Xiang River and the Gui River provided an important waterway connecting the Yangtze River with the Pearl River Delta.
