Ejin River

Ejin River

Ejin River

The Ejin River is China’s second-largest inland river. It originates from the eastern foothills of the Qilian Mountains in Qinghai Province, with a main stream length of 821 kilometers and a drainage area of 142,900 square kilometers (including 116,000 square kilometers of the main stream system). The section above Yingluo Gorge is the upper reaches, with a river length of 303 kilometers and a drainage area of 10,000 square kilometers...

"Ejin" is a transliteration of the Tangut word "Yijina," meaning "black water" or "black river." However, He Qiutao, a scholar from the late Qing Dynasty, in his annotations for Zhang Mu's *Mongolian Nomadic Records*, cited Mr. Xu Xingbo as stating that "Ejin is a Mongolian word meaning 'hidden' or 'secluded.'" The Ejin River was historically known as the Ruoshui or Jianggu Water, among other names.

The Ejin River is mentioned frequently in historical records, and the modern *Ejin Banner Annals* also contain the following account:

Within the banner’s territory, the Ejin River flows for 250 kilometers, with an average width of about 150 meters and a normal water level of around 1.5 meters. Its average flow rate ranges between 200–300 cubic meters per second. Flowing from south to north across the delta oasis, it branches into 19 distributaries... The remaining waters flow into the East (Subei Nur) and West (Gaxun Nur) Juyan Lakes, as well as into Jingsitu Lake.