As the river has the highest altitude in the world, Yarlung zangbo River is located in southwestern Tibet Autonomous Region of China. It originates from Jiema Yangzong Glacier in the north of Himalayas, the southwest of Tibet, belonging to Indian Ocean river system. For some students who come to learn Chinese language in China, they may know there are several international rives in China and Yarlung zangbo River is one. When it flows out of China to India, it is named Brahmaputra River. Then it flows through Bangladesh and meets with the Ganges River and finally lows into India Ocean in the Bay of Bengal.
With the total length of 2,057 kilometers, Yarlung zangbo River is the sixth largest river in China, ranking the third in the aspect of annual runoff of approximately 139.5 billion cubic meters. The average altitude is 4,000 meters and the drainage area reaches 240480 square kilometers, ranking the fifth in China. The total drop of Yarlung zangbo River in China is more than 5400 meters, making it the river with the steepest flowing slope.
The upstream of this river is from the river resource to Lizi, with the length of 268 kilometers. In this period, the river surface is wide and flat and there are many lakes distributed. The middle part is from Lizi to Paiqu, with the total length of 1293 kilometers. This area has typical characteristics of river valley. The left part is the downstream with the length of 496 kilometers.
Among so many rivers in China that the foreigners who are learning Mandarin Chinese know, Yarlung Zangbo River is famous for the large number of tributaries, among which the rivers with the catchment area of 2000 square kilometers are 14 and five of them have the area of more than ten thousand square kilometers. The longest tributary with the largest catchment area is Lhasa River while Palong Zangbu has the largest annual runoff. In addition, the water quantity of this river is large and stable even in the dry season.
Yarlung zangbo River has very rich hydropower resources with good conditions of water resources development. The water reserve in the whole river basin is over 110 million kilowatts, accounting for one sixth in China. At present, China has initially built several water conservancy and hydropower projects for irrigation or power generation on the small tributaries. But it still has great potential to develop much water resource.