River · China
Pearl River
The Pearl River is China's third-longest river and the second largest by the amount of water it carries. It flows through the busy city of Guangzhou and reaches the South China Sea between Hong Kong and Macau.
Picture credit: DragonSamYU (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Tony Rocco (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Pearl River?
The river starts here: Maxiong Mountain, Yunnan, China (source of the Xi River).
It ends in the South China Sea between Hong Kong and Macau.
Countries on the river: China.
The story behind it
The Pearl River is really a family of rivers. The West River, the North River and the East River meet in the south of China and form a large delta, which reaches the sea through eight mouths. The name is said to come from a small island called Sea Pearl that once lay in the river at Guangzhou. Guangzhou was founded on the river bank more than 2 200 years ago, and for a long time it was the only Chinese port that European ships were allowed to visit. Today the delta is the largest urban area in the world, with about 86 million people in cities such as Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Macau. Huge bridges cross the water, some of them among the longest in the world. In the salty estuary live Chinese white dolphins. They are born dark grey and turn white or pink as they grow up.
Questions children ask
How long is the Pearl River?
Measured from the farthest source of its main branch, the West River, the Pearl River system is about 2 400 km long. Other sources give between about 2 200 and 2 320 km, depending on how it is measured.
Why is it called the Pearl River?
The name is said to come from a small island called Sea Pearl that once lay in the river at Guangzhou. Another explanation points to pearl-coloured shells in the riverbed.
Why are the dolphins in the Pearl River pink?
Chinese white dolphins are born dark grey and slowly turn white or pink as they grow up. About 2 500 of them live in the Pearl River estuary, including the waters west of Hong Kong.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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