The Yangtze River, or Chang Jiang, is the longest river in China and Asia, and the third-longest in the world, after the Nile in Africa and the Amazon in South America.
The river is about 6,380 km long and flows from its source in Qinghai Province, eastwards into the East China Sea at Shanghai. It is considered by some people as a dividing line between North and South China, although geographers generally consider the Qinling-Huai River line to be the official line of geographical division. As the largest river in the region, the Yangtze is historically, culturally, and economically important to China. One of the dams on the river, the Three Gorges Dam, is the largest hydro-electric power station in the world.
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