Amur
Amur Heilong | |
---|---|
Etymology | From Mongolian: amar ("rest") |
Location | |
Countries | |
Cities | |
Physical characteristics | |
Source | Onon-Shilka |
• location | Khan Khentii Strictly Protected Area, Khentii Province, Mongolia |
• coordinates | 48°48′59″N 108°46′13″E / 48.81639°N 108.77028°E |
• elevation | 2,045 m (6,709 ft) |
2nd source | Argun |
• location | Greater Khingan, Hulunbuir, China |
• coordinates | 49°56′13″N 122°27′54″E / 49.937°N 122.465°E |
Source confluence | |
• location | Near Pokrovka, Russia |
• coordinates | 53°19′58″N 121°28′37″E / 53.33278°N 121.47694°E |
• elevation | 303 m (994 ft) |
Mouth | Strait of Tartary |
• location | Near Nikolayevsk-on-Amur, Khabarovsk Krai, Russia |
• coordinates | 52°56′50″N 141°05′02″E / 52.94722°N 141.08389°E |
• elevation | 0 m (0 ft) |
Length | 2,824 km (1,755 mi)[1][2] |
Basin size | 1,855,000 km2 (716,000 sq mi)[1] |
Width | |
• maximum | 5,000 m (16,000 ft) |
Depth | |
• maximum | 57 m (187 ft) |
Discharge | |
• location | Strait of Tartary, Sea of Okhotsk (near mouth) |
• average | (Period of data: 1896–2004)11,330 m3/s (400,000 cu ft/s)[3]
357.4 km3/a (11,330 m3/s) (Period of data: 1934–2012)10,929 m3/s (386,000 cu ft/s) 343 km3/a (10,900 m3/s) to 364 km3/a (11,500 m3/s)[2] |
• minimum | 514 m3/s (18,200 cu ft/s) |
• maximum | 30,700 m3/s (1,080,000 cu ft/s) |
Discharge | |
• location | Nikolayevsk-on-Amur, Russia (Basin size: 1,730,000 km2 (670,000 sq mi)[4] |
• average | (Period of data: 1896–2004)10,100 m3/s (360,000 cu ft/s)[3] |
Discharge | |
• location | Khabarovsk, Russia |
• average | (Period of data: 1896–2004)8,360 m3/s (295,000 cu ft/s)[3] (Period of data: 1940–2009)8,321 m3/s (293,900 cu ft/s)[5] |
• minimum | 4,360 m3/s (154,000 cu ft/s)[3] |
• maximum | 25,500 m3/s (900,000 cu ft/s)[3] |
Basin features | |
River system | Strait of Tartary |
Tributaries | |
• left | Shilka, Zeya, Bureya, Amgun |
• right | Argun, Huma, Songhua, Ussuri |
Amur | |
---|---|
Russian name | |
Tâi-lô | Hik-lîng Kang |
ᡠᠯᠠ
The Amur River (
The Amur is an important river for the
Name
The Russian name Amur comes the Tungusic term for “river”.[citation needed] Tungusic peoples are an ethno-linguistic group formed by the speakers of Tungusic languages (or Manchu–Tungus languages). They are native to Siberia and Northeast Asia.[12]
Historically, it was common to refer to a river simply as "water". There are similar words for "water" or "river" in a number of Asiatic languages: e.g. 물 mul ("water") in Korean, muren or mörön ("river") in Mongolian, and 水 midu > mizu ("water") in Japanese. The name "Amur" may have evolved from a root word for water, coupled with a size modifier for "Big Water".[13]
Its ancient Chinese names were Yushui, Wanshui and Heishui,
Course
The river rises in the hills in the western part of Northeast China at the confluence of its two major affluents, the Shilka and the Argun (or Ergune), at an elevation of 303 metres (994 ft).[15] It flows east forming the border between China and Russia, and slowly makes a great arc to the southeast for about 400 kilometres (250 mi), receiving many tributaries and passing many small towns. At Huma, it is joined by a major tributary, the Huma He.[16] Afterwards it continues to flow south until, between the cities of Blagoveshchensk in Russia and Heihe in China, it widens significantly as it is joined by one of its most important tributaries the Zeya.[17]
The Amur arcs to the east and turns southeast again at the confluence with the
During years with heavy precipitation, the Amur river system is connected with the
Tributaries
The largest tributaries of the Amur are, from source to mouth:[7][20]
There are also numerous lakes in the floodplain of the Amur. Some of the largest ones are Bolon, Khummi and Udyl.[21]
History and context
Many historical references distinguish two geopolitical entities in the area of the Amur:
The Amur is an important symbol of, and geopolitical factor in, Chinese–Russian relations. The Amur became especially prominent in the period of the Sino–Soviet political split of 1956–1966.
For many[
The Mongols, ruling the region as the Yuan dynasty, established a tenuous military presence on the lower Amur in the 13th and 14th centuries; ruins of a Yuan-era temple have been excavated near the village of Tyr.[24]
During the reigns of the Yongle and Xuande Emperors (early-15th century), the Ming dynasty reached the Amur in their drive to establish control over the lands adjacent to the Ming Empire to the northeast, which would later become known as Manchuria. Expeditions headed by the eunuch Yishiha reached Tyr several times between 1411 and the early 1430s, re-building (twice) the Yongning Temple and obtaining at least the nominal allegiance of the lower Amur's tribes to the Ming government.[25][26] Some sources report also a Chinese presence during the same period on the middle Amur – a fort existed at Aigun for about 20 years during the Yongle era on the left (northwestern) shore of the Amur downstream from the mouth of the Zeya River. This Ming Dynasty Aigun was located on the opposite bank to the later Aigun that was later relocated during the Qing Dynasty.[27] In any event, the Ming presence on the Amur was as short-lived as it was tenuous; soon after the end of the Yongle era, the Ming dynasty's frontiers retreated to southern Manchuria.[citation needed]
Chinese cultural and religious influence such as Chinese New Year, the "Chinese god", Chinese motifs like the dragon, spirals, scrolls, and material goods like agriculture, husbandry, heating, iron cooking-pots, silk, and cotton spread among Amur natives such as the Udeghes, Ulchis, and Nanais.[28]
Russian
At the time, the Manchus were busy with
The Amur region remained a relative backwater of the Qing Empire for the next century and a half, with Aigun being practically the only major town on the river. Russians re-appeared on the river in the mid-19th century, forcing the Manchus to yield all lands north of the river to the Russian Empire by the Treaty of Aigun (1858). Lands east of the Ussuri and the lower Amur were acquired by Russia as well, by the Convention of Peking (1860).[32]
Bridges and tunnels
Amur | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mongolian Cyrillic Хар Мөрөн / Амар Мөрөн | | ||||
| |||||
Manchu name | |||||
Manchu script | ᠰᠠᡥᠠᠯᡳᠶᠠᠨ ᡠᠯᠠ | ||||
Romanization | Sahaliyan Ula | ||||
Russian name | |||||
Russian | Амур | ||||
Romanization | Amur |
The first permanent bridge across the Amur, the Khabarovsk Bridge with an overall length of 2,590 metres (8,500 ft), was completed in 1916, allowing the trains on the Trans-Siberian Railway to cross the river year-round without using ferries or rail tracks on top of the river ice. In 1941 a railway tunnel was added as well.[citation needed]
Later, a combined road and rail bridge over the Amur at Komsomolsk-on-Amur (1975; 1400 m) and the road and rail Khabarovsk Bridge (1999; 3890 m) were constructed.
The Tongjiang-Nizhneleninskoye railway bridge was proposed in 2007 by Valery Solomonovich Gurevich, the vice-chairman of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast in Russia. The railway bridge over the Amur will connect Tongjiang with Nizhneleninskoye, a village in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast.[33] The Chinese portion of the bridge was finished in July 2016.[34] In December 2016, work began on the Russian portion of the bridge. Completion of structural link between the two sides of the bridge was completed in March 2019.[35][36] Opening to rail traffic has been repeatedly delayed, with the December 2019 estimate being "the end of 2020",[37] and then 3rd quarter of 2021.[38]
Wildlife
It is believed there are at least 123 species of fish from 23 families inhabiting the Amur. The majority are of the
Four species of the
Direction
Flowing across northeast
The Amur has always been closely associated with the island of Sakhalin at its mouth, and most names for the island, even in the languages of the indigenous peoples of the region, are derived from the name of the river: "Sakhalin" derives from a
The average annual discharge varies from 6,000 cubic metres per second (210,000 cu ft/s) (1980) to 12,000 cubic metres per second (420,000 cu ft/s) (1957), leading to an average 9,819 cubic metres per second (346,800 cu ft/s) or 310 cubic kilometres (74 cu mi) per year. The maximum runoff measured occurred in Oct 1951 with 30,700 cubic metres per second (1,080,000 cu ft/s) whereas the minimum discharge was recorded in March 1946 with a mere 514 cubic metres per second (18,200 cu ft/s).[41]
See also
- Geography of China
- Geography of Russia
- Sino-Soviet border conflict
- List of longest undammed rivers
- Sixty-Four Villages East of the Heilong Jiang
- Amur Military Flotilla
References
- ^ a b c d Muranov, Aleksandr Pavlovich; Greer, Charles E.; Owen, Lewis. "Amur River". Encyclopædia Britannica (online ed.). Archived from the original on 2016-05-21. Retrieved 2016-08-31.
- ^ ISBN 9789881722713.
- ^ a b c d e "DRAINAGE BASINS OF THE SEA OF OKHOTSK AND SEA OF JAPAN" (PDF). pp. 60–67.
- ^ "Variations of the Present-Day Annual and Seasonal Runoff in the Far East and Siberia with the Use of Regional Hydrological and Global Climate Models" (PDF).
- ISBN 9784431552451.
- ^ Liaoning province's archive, Manchu Veritable Record Upper Vol《滿洲實錄上函/manju-i yargiyan kooli dergi dobton》
- ^ a b c Амур (река в Азии), Great Soviet Encyclopedia
- ^ FishBase: Species in Amur. Archived 2019-02-18 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 17 February 2019.
- ^ C. Michael Hogan. 2012. Amur River. Encyclopedia of Earth. Archived November 30, 2012, at the Wayback Machine Topic ed. Peter Saundry
- S2CID 221044242.
- ISBN 0-89577-087-3.
- ^ a b The fishes of the Amur River:updated check-list and zoogeography Archived 2020-02-04 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Source elevation derived from Google Earth
- hdl:20.500.11794/790. Retrieved 29 November 2023.
- S2CID 227100672. Retrieved 29 November 2023.
- ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 899.
- ^ "Untitled Document".
- ^ "Река Амур in the State Water Register of Russia". verum.wiki (in Russian).
- ^ "Water of Russia - Khabarovsk Krai".
- ISBN 978-1-118-97059-1.
- ^ Hölzl, Andreas (2018). "Udi, Udihe, and the language(s) of the Kyakala". International Journal of Diachronic Linguistics and Linguistic Reconstruction. 15: 111–146.
- ^ Головачев В. Ц. (V. Ts. Golovachev), «Тырские стелы и храм „Юн Нин“ в свете китайско-чжурчжэньских отношений XIV—XV вв.» Archived 2009-02-23 at the Wayback Machine (The Tyr Stelae and the Yongning Temple viewed in the context of Sino-Jurchen relations of the 14-15th centuries) Этно-Журнал, 2008-11-14. (in Russian)
- ISBN 0-231-03801-1
- on Google Books. pp. 158-159.
- ^ Du Halde, Jean-Baptiste (1735). Description géographique, historique, chronologique, politique et physique de l'empire de la Chine et de la Tartarie chinoise. Vol. IV. Paris: P.G. Lemercier. pp. 15–16. Archived from the original on 2009-07-02. Retrieved 2009-04-01. Numerous later editions are available as well, including one on Google Books Archived 2017-01-10 at the Wayback Machine. Du Halde refers to the Yongle-era fort, the predecessor of Aigun, as Aykom. There seem to be few, if any, mentions of this project in other available literature.
- ^ Forsyth 1994 Archived 2016-05-14 at the Wayback Machine, p. 214.
- ^ Du Halde (1735), pp. 15-16
- ^ Foust, Muscovite and Mandarin p. 245-250
- .
- ^ "The Convention of Peking of 1860 is concluded". Presidential Library. Retrieved 2022-07-12.
- ^ Proposed bridge to boost bilateral trade Archived 2013-05-28 at the Wayback Machine, China Daily, June 19, 2007.
- ^ Andrew Higgins (July 16, 2016). "An Unfinished Bridge, and Partnership, Between Russia and China". The New York Times. Archived from the original on July 16, 2016. Retrieved July 17, 2016.
- ^ "Russia Completes Construction of First-Ever Rail Bridge to China", The Moscow Times, March 21, 2019, retrieved November 16, 2020
- ^ Россия и Китай соединили железнодорожный мост через Амур [Russia and China connected a railway bridge across the Amur] (in Russian), RBK Group, March 21, 2019, retrieved November 16, 2020
- ^ "Railway bridge over Amur river to China will be built by end of 2020, envoy says". TASS. Retrieved November 16, 2020.
- ^ "Новости Хабаровска".
- ISSN 2076-3263.
- ^ Endemic sturgeons of the Amur River: kaluga, Huso dauricus, and Amur sturgeon, Acipenser schrencki Archived 2020-02-04 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Amur at Komsomolsk". UNESCO. Archived from the original on 2012-08-12. Retrieved 2008-08-14.
Further reading
- Bisher, Jamie (2006). White Terror: Cossack Warlords of the Trans-Siberian. Routledge. ISBN 1135765960
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 899.
- Forsyth, James (1994). A History of the Peoples of Siberia: Russia's North Asian Colony 1581-1990 (illustrated, reprint, revised ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521477719. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
- Kang, Hyeokhweon. Shiau, Jeffrey (ed.). "Big Heads and Buddhist Demons: The Korean Military Revolution and Northern Expeditions of 1654 and 1658" (PDF). Emory Endeavors in World History. 4: Transnational Encounters in Asia (2013 ed.): 1–22. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-01-15. Retrieved 10 March 2014.
- Kim 金, Loretta E. 由美 (2012–2013). "Saints for Shamans? Culture, Religion and Borderland Politics in Amuria from the Seventeenth to Nineteenth Centuries". Central Asiatic Journal. 56. Harrassowitz Verlag: 169–202. .
- McAleavy, Henry. "China and the Amur Provinces" History Today (June 1964) 14#6 pp 381–390.
- Stephan, John J. (1996). The Russian Far East: A History (illustrated, reprint ed.). Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804727015.
- Thubron, Colin (2021). The Amur River: Between Russia and China. London: Chatto & Windus.
- Ziegler, Dominic (2015). Black Dragon River: A Journey Down the Amur River Between Russia and China.
External links
- Amur-Heilong River Basin Information Center - maps, GIS data, environmental data
- Information and a map of the Amur’s watershed