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Beijing River System

Beijing has a total of more than 200 rivers and streams all over the city. Anyway, the river system can be categorized into 5 main rivers which are Yongding River, Chaobai River, Beiyun River, Juma River and Gou River. One of the most well-known similarity between these five rivers is all of them are originated from the high mountains situated at northwestern part and flows towards plain area around southeastern part of Beijing.

Yongding River

Yongding River is the largest river in Beijing. The source of this river is consisted of the combination of Sanggan River and Yang River. Then, the river flows through Guanting Gap, Sanjiadian and passing Lugouqiao (Marco polo bridge)and forms river on the ground. The river keeps flowing towards the east until Qujiadian and meets with Beiyun River. The overall length of Yongding River reaches 681 km with the area of flows about 50,830 square km (until Qujiadian only).
Moreover, Yongding River also could be considered as the most unstable river throughout the history of river system in China. This was due to the total rain fall at the source of this river was very unstable causing the level of this river flow to be unpredictable. Moreover, since the river flows through Loess area at the beginning of the flow causing more sediment to be found in the river, thus, deposition of river was very common especially at the plain area. As a result, Yongding River was once named as “small Yellow River”. Anyway the condition of Yongding River was greatly improved when the water reservoir was built at Guanting in 1950s.

Chaobai River

Bai River which is originated from the southern part of Guyuan County, Hebei Province and Chao River which is originated from the Fengning County, Hebei Province are both sources of river for Chaobai River in Beijing. There two rivers will flow into Miyun reservoir and combined into a single river named Chaobai River. Chaobai River is the second large river in Beijing, with total length of 467 km and area of flows about 19,559 square km. Deposition of river was very common especially at the plain area. The opening of new Chaobai River was taken place in 1950. The new Chaobai River flows from Xianghe County, Hebei Province passing through Huangzhuanggui and Qilihai into Jiyun River, finally flow into Bohai Sea.

Beiyun River

Beiyun River is the most northern part of the Grand Canal of Beijing-Hangzhou. Part of the river especially the section from Tongzhou District to Tianjin City was completely an outcome of workers hard works which means that this section was a part of man-made river. There are two main sources for Beiyun River, which are Chaobai River and Wenyu River. The Wenyu River was originated from Southwestern part of Jundu Mountain which is made up by the combination of Guangou, Beisha River, Dongsha River, Nansha River etc. After Wenyu River met with Tonghui River at Tongzhou, and then only started to name as Beiyun River. The length of Beiyun River is about 238 km which is calculated until it met with Yongding River at Qujiadian. The area of flows for Beiyun River is over 5300 square km and this river is currently served as the most important drainage river in Beijing.

Juma River

The original source of Juma River is situated at Lai Mountain, one of the mountains at Taihang Mountains of Shanxi Province. This river flows through southwestern part of Beijing. Many jet streams can be found along this river and which causing the loose Loess soil on the surface flow easily together with the river. Therefore, a number of mud flow is very common especially when rains heavily. As a result, a muddy-color Juma River was transformed.

Ju River

Ju River is originated from northern part of Huangyaguan, which is one of the most important gateways of Great Wall located at Hebei Province. The river flows through Tianjin city and later into Pinggu District of Beijing. Then, the river accepts many flows from smaller rivers in the middle and then heading to Sanhe City of Hebei Province which will reach Bohai Sea as the final destination.