River · Russia, China, Mongolia
Amur
The Amur River forms a long natural border between Russia and China in northeastern Asia. Its wild forests are one of the last strongholds of the endangered Siberian tiger.
Picture credit: User:Refrain (Public domain) · Alexxx1979 (CC BY-SA 4.0) · And.smirnov (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Amur?
The river begins at Confluence of Shilka and Argun rivers, Russia-China border.
It ends in the Sea of Okhotsk (Strait of Tartary).
Along the way it passes: Hulun Buir grasslands (Argun headwaters) → Shilka/Argun confluence (source) → Mohe, China → Blagoveshchensk, Russia → Jiayin, China → Tongjiang (Songhua confluence) → Khabarovsk (Ussuri confluence) → Komsomolsk-on-Amur → Nikolayevsk-on-Amur → Mouth (Sea of Okhotsk).
Countries on the river: Russia, China, Mongolia.
The story behind it
The Amur is born where the Shilka and Argun rivers meet on the Russia-China border, and for much of its course the river itself marks that international boundary. It flows east and then north through dense forests, wide wetlands and remote towns, eventually spilling into the Sea of Okhotsk near the Russian Pacific coast. Unlike many of the world's great rivers, the Amur has never been dammed along its main course, which means fish like the huge, ancient kaluga sturgeon, a relative of dinosaur-era fish that can grow over five metres long, can still swim freely from one end to the other. The surrounding forests shelter some of the last wild Siberian tigers and Amur leopards on Earth, both critically endangered. In winter, the river freezes so completely that people cross it on foot or by car.
Questions children ask
How long is the Amur River?
The Amur itself is about 2,824 kilometres long, but together with its headstream the Argun River, the full system stretches roughly 4,444 kilometres, one of the ten longest rivers in the world.
Why is the Amur River a border?
For much of its course, the Amur River flows exactly along the boundary between Russia and China, so the two countries have long used it as a natural, easy-to-see border on maps.
What animals live along the Amur River?
The forests along the Amur are home to critically endangered Siberian tigers and Amur leopards, while the river itself holds the giant kaluga sturgeon, one of the largest freshwater fish alive today.
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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