River · China, Myanmar, Thailand
Salween
The Salween is one of the longest rivers in Southeast Asia. It rushes down from a glacier on the Tibetan Plateau, cuts through deep gorges in China and Myanmar and flows into the Andaman Sea.
Picture credit: Christophe95 (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Salween?
The river starts here: Glacier in the Tanggula Mountains, Tibetan Plateau, China.
It ends in the Andaman Sea (Gulf of Martaban) at Mawlamyine, Myanmar.
Countries on the river: China, Myanmar, Thailand.
The story behind it
In China the Salween is called Nu Jiang, which means ‘angry river’, because its roaring water forces its way through the mountains. In Yunnan it runs side by side with the Yangtze and the Mekong for more than 300 km, separated only by mountain ranges with peaks over 6 000 metres. This area, the Three Parallel Rivers, has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2003. Snow leopards, red pandas and rare black snub-nosed monkeys live there. In Myanmar the river is called Thanlwin, and for about 120 km it forms the border with Thailand. For a long time people floated teak logs down the river to the sea. The Salween is the longest river in Southeast Asia without a dam on its main stream. More than 200 kinds of fish live in its basin, and about a third of them are found nowhere else in the world.
Questions children ask
How long is the Salween?
The Salween is about 3 289 km long. Other sources give shorter lengths, from about 2 400 to 2 980 km, depending on how it is measured.
Which countries does the Salween flow through?
What does Nu Jiang mean?
Nu Jiang is the Chinese name of the Salween and means ‘angry river’. The name fits, because the water roars through deep, narrow gorges on its way down from Tibet.
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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