Names of Yangtze River

Yangtze River, also spelled Yangtse River, Yangzi River and Yangtze Kiang, is derived from Yangzi Jiang, the local name for a stretch of the lower Yangtze near Yangzhou. “Yangzi” was the name of a village and site of an ancient ferry crossing, and Jiang is one of the Chinese words for river. In the 13th century, the famous Song Dynasty official, Wen Tianxiang penned a poem entitled Yangzi Jiang. Later, Western missionaries heard the name and applied it to the entire river.

* Chinese names

The Chinese use distinct official names for different stretches of the river.

• Chang Jiang (长江/長江 Cháng Jiāng, lit. "Long River") is the name for the last 2,884 km of the Yangtze from the confluence with the Min River (Sichuan) at Yibin to its mouth at Shanghai. In ancient times, this river was simply known as Jiang or the Da Jiang (the great river). Stretches of Chang Jiang have local names such as the Chuanjiang (川江, for the Sichuan portion of the river from Yibin to Yichang), Jingjiang (荆江, for the Jingzhou section of the river) and Yangzi Jiang (near Yangzhou). The entire Chang Jiang is navigable and also known as the Golden Waterway.
• Jinsha River or Gold Sands River (金沙江 Jīnshā Jiāng, lit. "Golden Sands River") refers to 2,308 km of the Yangtze upstream from Yibin to the confluence with the Batang River, near Yushu.
• Tongtian River (通天河, lit. "river passing through heaven") refers to the 813 km stretch of the Yangtze from Yushu upstream to the confluence of the Tuotuo River and Dangqu, which together forms the Tongtian.
• Tuotuo River (沱沱河) refers to one of the headwater streams of the Yangtze. It arises from glaciers south of the Geladandong Mountain in Qinghai and flows west for 343 km where it meets with the Dangqu and forms the Tongtian.

* Tibetan names

The source and upper reaches of the Yangtze are located in ethnic Tibetan areas of Qinghai. In Tibetan, the headwater streams of the Tuotuo are called Naqinqu. The Tuotuo River is known in Tibetan as Maqu (Red River). Tuotuo is derived from the Mongolian name for the river, Tuoketuonaiwulanmulun (托克托乃乌兰木伦, or the frothy red river). The Tongtian is known in Tibetan as the Drichu (Tibetan: འབྲི་ཆུ་ ; Wylie: 'bri chu,直曲, lit. "river of the female yak"). Dangqu (当曲) another leading headwater stream of the Yangtze is Tibetan for "marsh river".

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