Mekong River In Asia

The Mekong River is a river in the south-east of Asia. It flows through....

The Mekong River is a river in the south-east of Asia. It flows through many countries: China, Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and finally Vietnam. The Mekong begins in the Lasagongma Spring which is in the plateaus of Tibet, disputed part of China, and flows about 2,703 miles (4,350 km) south-east to the South China Sea. Its watershed covers 307,000 square miles (797,000 square kilometers).[1] Its name comes from the Thai language's Mae Num, or literally, "Mother Water".

The Mekong is one of the most biologically diverse areas in the world, with hundreds of types of fish, as well as river dolphins, crocodiles, and otters. Fishing is a very important activity on the river.[2] However, the Mekong River is also used extensively for navigation

Names

The English name "Mekong" is derived from the Khmer name មេគង្គ Mékôngk. The Khmers named the Mekong River after the Ganges River. In Khmer, Mékôngk is itself glossed as 'Mother Ganges', from mé ('mother') and taking kôngk as a form of kôngkea ('Ganges').[4]In Thai and Lao, mae nam ('mother of water[s]') is used for any major river and khong is the proper name. As such, Thai and Lao locals often refer to it in English as the "River Khong". Khong itself, however, is an archaic word meaning 'river' or 'the river', cognate with Chinese 江 whose Old Chinese pronunciation has been reconstructedas /*kˤroŋ/and which long served as the proper name of the Yangtze before becoming a generic word for major rivers.

The local names for the river include:

Course

The Mekong rises as the Za Qu and soon becomes known as the Lancang (Lantsang) Jiang in the "three rivers source area" on the Tibetan Plateau in the Sanjiangyuan National Nature Reserve. The reserve protects the headwaters of, from north to south, the Yellow(Huang He), the Yangtze, and the Mekong Rivers. It flows through the Tibetan Autonomous Region and then southeast into YunnanProvince, and then the Three Parallel Rivers Area in the Hengduan Mountains, along with the Yangtze to its east and the Salween River(Nu Jiang in Chinese) to its west.

The Mekong then meets the tripoint of China, Myanmar and Laos. From there it flows southwest and forms the border of Myanmar and Laos for about 100 kilometres (62 mi) until it arrives at the tripoint of Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand. This is also the point of confluence between the Ruak River (which follows the Thai–Myanmar border) and the Mekong. The area of this tripoint is sometimes termed the Golden Triangle, although the term also refers to the much larger area of those three countries that was notorious as a drug producing region.

From the Golden Triangle tripoint, the Mekong turns southeast to briefly form the border of Laos with Thailand.

Khon Pi Long is a series of rapids along a 1.6-kilometre section of the Mekong River dividing Chiang Rai and Bokeo Province in Laos. The name of the rapids means 'where the ghost lost its way'.[7] It then turns east into the interior of Laos, flowing first east and then south for some 400 kilometres (250 mi) before meeting the border with Thailand again. Once more, it defines the Laos-Thailand border for some 850 kilometres (530 mi) as it flows first east, passing the capital of Laos, Vientiane, then turns south. A second time, the river leaves the border and flows east into Laos soon passing the city of Pakse. Thereafter, it turns and runs more or less directly south, crossing into Cambodia.

At Phnom Penh the river is joined on the right bank by the river and lake system the Tonlé Sap. When the Mekong is low, the Tonle Sap is a tributary: water flows from the lake and river into the Mekong. When the Mekong floods, the flow reverses: the floodwaters of the Mekong flow up the Tonle Sap.

Immediately after the Sap River joins the Mekong by Phnom Penh, the Bassac River branches off the right (west) bank. The Bassac River is the first and main distributary of the Mekong. This is the beginning of the Mekong Delta.