Yangtze River - taming the dragon
© WWF-Canon / Yifei ZHANG
The Yangtze is Asia's longest river. It flows a distance of 6,300km from its headwaters in the Tibetan Plateau before it empties into the East China Sea .
The Yangtze River and some of its 700 tributaries form China's main navigable waterways.
The mighty river is also tapped as a source of hydroelectric power and irrigation for agriculture.
The Yangtze River Basin, an area of 1.8 million sq km is a region of tremendous economic importance. Approximately 400 million, a third of China 's total population, make their homes here. China 's major population and industrial centres are concentrated here, while its agricultural areas generate close to half the country's total crop production.
The Central Yangtze refers to the section of the river basin from Yichang in Hubei province to Hukou in Jiangxi province. This is a region of floodplains and lakes and is one of the Global 200 priority ecoregions for conservation.
This ecoregion mainly includes Dongting Lake, Poyang Lake, Jianghan Lakes, Anqing Lake, and the mainstream and tributaries of Yangtze River. The total area accounts for 42% of the total Yangtze River Basin .
The Central Yangtze is affectionately known as China's home of rice and fish in recognition of its fertile soils and the bounty of its rivers. In the rainy summer season the Yangtze River becomes swollen with the heavy rainfall in the upper Basin. The floodplain has a role in absorbing the overflow. In full flood the lakes merge with the river thereby reducing potential flood damage.
Despite centuries of change, the lakes and floodplains of the Central Yangtze continue to support a wealth of distinctive natural diversity. The flora and fauna of this area are uniquely adapted to the seasonal changes in the water cycle - fish move freely between them while non-aquatic animals make for higher ground.
