Yalu River

The Yalu River, also called the Amnok River (Korean pronunciation: [amnog.k͈aŋ]), is a river on the border between North Korea and China. Together with the Tumen River to its east, and a small portion of Paektu Mountain, the Yalu forms the border between North Korea and China and is notable as a site involved in military conflicts in the First Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War and the Korean War.

Name

There are two versions regarding the origin of the river name. One version is that the name derived from "Yalv ula" in the Manchu language. The Manchu word "Yalu" means "the boundary between two countries". In Mandarin Chinese, "Yalu" phonetically approximates the original Manchu word "Yalu", but literally means "Duck Green", which was said to have been once the color of the river. The other version is that the river was named after the combination of its two upper branches, which was called "Ya" and "Lu" respectively.

Geography

From 2500 m above sea level on Paektu Mountain on the China–North Korea border, the river flows south to Hyesan before sweeping 130 km northwest to Linjiang and then returning to a more southerly route for a further 300 km to empty into the Korea Bay between Dandong (China) and Sinuiju (North Korea). The bordering Chinese provinces are Jilin and Liaoning.

Yalu River (Nonni River tributary)

The Yalu River (Chinese: 雅鲁河; pinyin: Yǎlǔ Hé) is a river straddling the Chinese regions of Heilongjiang and Hulunbei'er near the eastern border with Russia. As a right tributary of the Nen River, the Yalu starts on the eastern slopes of the Greater Khingan Range, and flows in the general south-eastern direction through Zhalantun in Hulunbei'er and Qiqiha'er in Heilongjiang. The Yalu flows from the west into the Nen River some 100 kilometres (62 mi) south of Qiqiha'er.

As the Nen then flows to the south and into the Songhua River, and the Songhua, to the east and northeast and into the Amur, the Yalu River is part of the Amur River basin. It should not be confused with another, much larger and better known Yalu River (Chinese: 鸭绿江, Yālù Jiāng), which flows along the China–North Korea border and into the Yellow Sea.

Coordinates: 39°56′N 124°19′E / 39.933°N 124.317°E / 39.933; 124.317