The Amur River () or Heilong River ()Liaoning province's archive, Manchu Veritable Record Upper Vol《滿洲實錄上函/manju-i yargiyan kooli dergi dobton》 is a perennial river in Northeast Asia, forming the natural border between the Russian Far East and Northeast China (historically the Outer and Inner Manchuria). The Amur proper is long, and has a drainage basin of .Амур (река в Азии), Great Soviet Encyclopedia If including its main stem tributary, the Argun, the Amur is long, making it the world's tenth longest river.
The Amur is an important river for the aquatic fauna of Northeast Asia. The river basin is home to a variety of large predatory fish such as northern snakehead, Amur pike, taimen, Amur catfish, predatory carp and yellowcheek,FishBase: Species in Amur. Retrieved 17 February 2019. as well as several species of trout and anadromous salmonids. The largest fish species in the Amur is the kaluga, a sturgeon that is one of the largest freshwater fish in the world, attaining a length as great as .C. Michael Hogan. 2012. Amur River. Encyclopedia of Earth. Topic ed. Peter Saundry The Amur is also home to the northernmost populations of the Amur softshell turtleFarkas, B., T. Ziegler, C.T. Pham, A.V. Ong and U. Fritz (2019). A new species of Pelodiscus from northeastern Indochina (Testudines, Trionychidae). ZooKeys 824: 71-86. and Indian lotus.Yi Zhang; Xu Lu; Shaoxiao Zeng; Xuhui Huang; Zebin Guo; Yafeng Zheng; Yuting Tian; Baodong Zheng (2015). "Nutritional composition, physiological functions and processing of lotus (Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn.) seeds: a review". Phytochem Rev. 14 (3): 321–334.
Name
The etymology of the name Amur is unknown. One theory dictates that it entered into Russian through either the Evenki word amur or the Even word amar, both meaning "river" in their respective Tungusic languages. However, it is unclear whether Russian borrowed the name Amur from either Tungusic language rather than the other way around. An alternative theory suggests that Amur comes from mur, the word in Dagur, one of the Mongolic languages, for "big river".
Its ancient Chinese names were Yushui, Wanshui and Heishui,The fishes of the Amur River:updated check-list and zoogeography with the latter name, meaning "black water", being the basis of the modern Chinese name Heilongjiang or "Black Dragon River", while the Manchurian name Sahaliyan Ula, the Mongolian names "Amar mörön" (Cyrillic: Амар мөрөн) originates from the name "Amar" meaning to rest and Khar mörön (Cyrillic: Хар мөрөн) meaning Black River.
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 .Source elevation derived from Google Earth It flows east forming the border between China and Russia, and slowly makes a great arc to the southeast for about , receiving many tributaries and passing many small towns. At Huma, it is joined by a major tributary, the Huma He. 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.
The Amur arcs to the east and turns southeast again at the confluence with the Bureya, then does not receive another significant tributary for nearly before its confluence with its largest tributary, the Songhua, at Tongjiang. At the confluence with the Songhua the river turns northeast, now flowing towards Khabarovsk, where it joins the Ussuri and ceases to define the Russia–China border. Now the river spreads out dramatically into a braided character, flowing north-northeast through a wide valley in eastern Russia, passing Amursk and Komsomolsk-on-Amur. The valley narrows after about and the river again flows north onto plains at the confluence with the Amgun. Shortly after, the Amur turns sharply east and into an estuary at Nikolayevsk-on-Amur, about downstream of which it flows into the Strait of Tartary.
During years with heavy precipitation, the Amur river system is connected with the Kherlen river. The normally exit−less endorheic lake Hulun Lake, into which Kherlen flows, will overflow at its northern shore through the arroyo of Mutnaya Protoka, and the water will meet the Argun River (Ergune) after about . The Amur Basin of the Kherlen−Argun−Amur River system has a total length of to its river mouth on the Sea of Okhotsk.
Tributaries The largest tributaries of the Amur are, from source to mouth:
Argun (right) Shilka (left) Amazar (left) Oldoy (left) Huma (right) Zeya (left) Bureya (left) Songhua (right) Bira (left) Ussuri (right) Tunguska (left) Anyuy (right) Gur (right) Gorin (left) Amgun (left)
There are also numerous lakes in the floodplain of the Amur. Some of the largest ones are Bolon, Khummi and Udyl.
The main tributaries from the mouth: Left tributary Right tributary Length (km) Basin size (km2) Average discharge (m3/s)Amur (Heilongjiang)4,4442,129,70012,791Lower AmurProtoka Palvinskaya346,675.475.7Amgun72354,602.6660Akcha58987.711.1Protoka Ukhta–Bichi33612,910.246.2Poto22845.75.8Kadi52645.97.6Yai1183,865.428.8Limuri1684,125.316.4Salasu681,2056.9Pisuy59856.22.7Machtovaya1031,477.215.4Gorin39021,953.6150Silinka78974.16.4Bolin431,219.814.1Gur34911,635.4226.3Elban991,756.827Bolon–Harpi23913,129.7245.6Gili221,32825.1Khoydur41571.211.7Anyuy39312,528.7298.4Pikhtsa90872.919.1Khar661,307.328Nemta (Neptu)2306,290143.5Sita (Strelka)1053,315.467.4Levaya421.49.9Darga501,62836.8Tunguska–Urmi54430,070.2595.6Ussuri (Wusulijiang)897195,047.41,620Middle AmurKrestovaya701,361.218.6Nongjiang4,469.930.1Petrovskaya62996.811.4Bira4249,279.184.2Malaya Bira1501,94613Penghua2,740.513.6Solonechnaya52963.44.7Sungari (Songhua)1,927552,629.82,591Wanyan163.91,815.19Bidzhan2747,335.946.2Dobraya581,996.610.7Samara1051,560.79.2Pompeyevka71635.63.9Jiayin2,109.112.3Wulaga1,213.57Khingan932,012.613.3Uril1051,160.47.1Jielie1,005.65.7Wuyun2,239.412Arkhara1558,643.482.1Bureya73970,141.2932Raychikha977603.8Kupriyanikha556893.4Kuerbin2215,826.222.2Xun (Hsünho)15,624.862.6Zavitaya2622,835.113.7Dim1,3486.5Topkocha44978.84.5Gilchin901,492.76.7Gongbiela38.82,678.510.9Manga (Big Alim)58733.13.4Shijin7593.2Zeya1,232232,076.51,807Upper AmurFabiela2,916.911.2Fanqniuhe747.82.9Guran55781.33Kuanhe2,1596.7Belaya771,069.73.7Bereya1462,013.56.3Huma54231,029.4130Belaya1021,176.83.6Ulmin67985.83.2Borya (Onon)141,109.53.6Gerbelik (Herbelic)43702.62.4Olga1582,905.310.1Burinda802,371.47.7Xiergenqi3,807.612.5Pangu1653,631.511.4Osezinha841,129.83.6Emuer46916,106.146.2Bolshoy Never1342,211.17.1Oldoy2879,878.238.3Urusha2003,442.313.4Omutnaya1712,163.17.6Urka1611,897.36.9Amazar29011,03137.9Shilka (1)555206,000571.1Argun (Erguna) (2)944300,977408.5Argun main tributariesEnhehada2,130.84.5Gazimur59212,047.532.4Budyumkan911,410.42.8Uryumkan2264,337.59.3Wumahe (Uma)1,817.33.8Urov2904,288.810.3Abahe (Aba)2,3835.2Jiliu46815,771.747.2Moridaga2,664.27Nizhnyaya Borzya1,793.25.2Srednyaya Borzya1181,632.24.3Verkhnyaya Borzya1534,028.810.7Urulyunguy1898,924.117.9Derbur6,779.317.7Genhe (Kenho)40015,787.858.1Dalan Orom (Xinkai)–Kherlen (3)1,284140,00040.7Hailar55554,800139.1Hailar main tributariesMorgele3194,936.412.4Yimin36021,332.139.6Moheri Tugaole956.13.1Teni1,401.84.3Miandu6,659.828Kudur3,461.613.7Dayan (Hailar)1213,325.413Endorheic basinUlz42035,0007.7Source: (1)Amur–Shilka–Onon: 4,354 km; (2)Amur–Argun–Hailar–Dayan: 4,444 km; (3)Amur–Argun–Dalan Orom–Kherlen: 5,052 km;
History and context Many historical references distinguish two geopolitical entities in the area of the Amur: Manchuria (Northeast China) and Outer Manchuria. The Chinese province of Heilongjiang on the south bank of the river takes its name from the river, as does the Russian Amur Oblast on the north bank. The native Manchu people and their Qing Empire of China, who regarded this river as sacred, use the name Sahaliyan Ula (Black River).
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 centuries, inhabitants of the Amur Valley comprised the Tungusic (Evenki, Solon, Ducher, Jurchen, Nanai, Ulch), Mongol (Daur) people, some Ainu and, near its mouth, the Nivkhs.Peter Bellwood; Immanuel Ness (10 November 2014). The Global Prehistory of Human Migration. John Wiley & Sons. p. 227. . For many of these groups, fishing in the Amur and its tributaries was the main source of their livelihood. Until the 17th century, those peoples were not known to Europeans, and little known to the Han Chinese, who sometimes collectively described them as the Wild Jurchens. The Chinese-language term Yúpí Dázi 魚皮韃子 ("Fish-skin Tatars") came to apply to the Nanais and related groups as well, owing to their traditional clothes made of fish skins.
The Mongols, ruling the region as the Yuan dynasty, established a tenuous military presence on the lower Amur in the 13th and the 14th centuries; ruins of a Yuan-era temple have been excavated near the village of Tyr.Головачев В. Ц. (V. Ts. Golovachev), «Тырские стелы и храм "Юн Нин" в свете китайско-чжурчжэньских отношений XIV—XV вв.» (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.
During the early-15th-century reigns of the Yongle and the Xuande Emperors, 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.L. Carrington Godrich, Chaoying Fang (editors), "Dictionary of Ming Biography, 1368–1644". Volume I (A-L). Columbia University Press, 1976. Shih-Shan Henry Tsai, "Perpetual Happiness: The Ming Emperor Yongle". Published by University of Washington Press, 2002. Partial text on Google Books. pp. 158-159. 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. Numerous later editions are available as well, including one on Google Books 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. 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.
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.Forsyth 1994 , p. 214.
Russian Cossack expeditions led by Vassili Poyarkov and Yerofey Khabarov explored the Amur and its tributaries in 1643-44 and 1649-51, respectively. From 1640s to 1680s the Cossacks collected tribute from local peoples. They also established the fort of Albazin on the upper Amur.