Origin of Yangtze River History

Brief Introduction of Yangtze River History

Yangtze River is the largest river of Asia because of its wide drainage area, length and the discharge of the stream. It originates from Geladandong Snow Mountain of Tangula Mountain of Tibet Plateau. Yangtze River stretches from the west to east with 3219 kilometers long, and it stretches from north to south with more than 966 kilometers long. Nowadays, many travelors cruise with Yangtze Cruise on Yangtze River to enjoy the scenery of Three Gorges and other landscapes.

Called the No.3 Longest River of the World during Yangtze River History

According to Yangtze River history, Yangtze River flows through Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Sichuan Province, Tibet, Yunnan Province, Chongqing Municipality, Hubei Province, Hunan Province, Jiangxi Province, Anhui Province, Jiangsu Province, Shanghai Municipality and the East Chinese Sea.

Yangtze River is 6397 kilometers long and takes the No.3 longest river of the world. It also takes the No.3 quantity of water of the world. The former two longest river of the world are Nile of Africa and the Amazon of South Africa.

Yangtze River covers 1,808,500 kilometers (the Basin of Huaihe River is not included) accounting for 1/5 of the total area of China. It has been called the name of "Mother River" of Chinese people with Yellow River together.

Origin of Yangtze River History

During the Yangtze River history, Yangtze River formed by the Yanshan movement in Jurassic period about 140 million years ago. Mt. Tanggula has been formed since that time and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has been raised, in the meanwhile many high mountains and deep valleys, low-lying land and rift valley have been formed at the same time. The Mt. Dabie and Mt. Wushan and other mountains have been uplifted in middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River, and the Sichuan Basin has been subsided. The ancient Mediterranean Sea has become much closer to the west part.

About 100 million years ago, the Sichuan Basin has slowly risen, but Dongting Basin has continually sunk. About 30 – 40 million years ago, because of the Himalayan movement and the raised Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the ancient Mediterranean Sea has disappeared. The Yangtze River basin has been raised, which the west part of Yangtze River raised quickly but the east part raised slowly. The both high mountains of Jinsha River have been appeared suddenly while the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau have been raised. There are some fault basins formed at the same time.

There are many deep and steep canyons have been formed because of the down-cutting erosion of the rivers. The initial river system from the north to the south has been converged and changed to flow to the east. The middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River basin has been raised slowly and formed many mountains and hills, at the same time, the low-lying zone has been sunk forming many plains such as Lianghu Plain, Nanxiang Plain, Poyang Plain and so on.

About 3 million years ago, The Mt. Himalaya and the west part of Yangtze River Basin have been raised quickly. The ancient Yangtze River stretching from Hubei Province to Sichuan Basin corroded as soon as possible and the Mt. Wushan has been cut through, therefore, the east part and west part of Yangtze River has been converged. From then on, all branches of Yangtze River flows into the East China Sea finally.