Yalu River
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	鴨綠江
Simplified Chinese	鸭绿江
Transcriptions Mandarin - Hanyu Pinyin Yālù Jiāng - Wade–Giles Ya-lu Chiang - IPA [jálû tɕjɑ́ŋ] Cantonese (Yue) - Jyutping aap3 luk6 gong1 - IPA [ʔáːplʊ̀kkɔ́ːŋ]
Korean name
Chosŏn'gŭl	압록강
Hancha	鴨綠江
Transcriptions - McCune- Reischauer Amrokkang (S. Amnokkang) - Revised Romanization Amrokgang (S. Amnokgang)
Manchu name
Manchu	Yalu ula (Möllendorf) Manchu script

The Yalu River (also called the Amrok in Korea) is a river on the border between North Korea and China. Together with the Tumen River to its east, and a small portion of Baekdu (Changbai) Mountain, the Yalu forms the border between North Korea and China. The Chinese name "Yalu" literally means "Duck Green", but the characters were chosen to phonetically approximate the original Manchu word "Yalu", which means "the boundary between two countries".^{[citation needed]} The Korean name is the Korean pronunciation of the Chinese characters.

Geography[link]

From 2,500 m above sea level on Changbai Mountain, on the China-North Korea border, the river flows south to Hyesan before sweeping 130 km northwest to Linjiang and then returning to a more southerly route for a further 300 km to empty into the Korea Bay between Dandong (China) and Sinŭiju (North Korea).

The bordering Chinese provinces are Jilin and Liaoning.

The river is 790 km (491 mi) long and receives the water from over 30,000 km² of land. The Yalu's most significant tributaries are the Changjin (장진강, 長津江), Heochun (허천강, 虚川江) and Tokro rivers. The river is not easily navigable for most of its length.^[1]

The depth of the Yalu River varies from some of the more shallow parts on the eastern side in Hyesan (1 metre) to the deeper parts of the river near the Yellow Sea (2.5 metres).^[2]

There are 205 islands on the Yalu. A 1962 border treaty between North Korea and China split the islands according to which ethnic group were living on each island. North Korea possesses 127 and China 78. Due to the division criteria, some islands such as Hwanggumpyong Island belong to North Korea but abut the Chinese bank of the river.

History[link]

The river basin is the site where the ancient kingdom of Goguryeo rose to power. Many former fortresses are located along the river and the former capital of that kingdom was situated at what is now the medium-sized city of Ji'an, China along the Yalu, a site rich in Goguryeo era relics.

Wihwa Island on the river is historically famous for the decision of General Yi Songgye in 1392 to there turn back his army southward to Kaesong in the first of a series of revolts that eventually led to the establishment of the Yi Dynasty.^[3]

The river has been the site of several battles because of its strategic location between Korea and China, including:

• Battle of the Yalu River (1894) – Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895)
• Battle of Yalu River (1904) – Russo-Japanese War

The Korean side of the river was heavily industrialized during Colonial Korea (1910–1945), and by 1945 almost 20% of Imperial Japan's total industrial output originated in Korea. During the Korean War the movement of UN troops approaching the river precipitated massive Chinese intervention from around Dandong. In the course of the conflict every bridge across the river except one was destroyed. The one remaining bridge was the Sino-Korea Friendship Bridge connecting Sinuiju, North Korea to Dandong, China. During the war the valley surrounding the western end of the river also became the focal point of a series of dogfights for air superiority over North Korea, earning the nickname "MiG Alley" in reference to the MiG-15 fighters flown by the combined North Korean, Chinese and Soviet forces.

The river has frequently been crossed by North Koreans fleeing to China since the early 1990s.^{[citation needed]}

Economy[link]

The river is important for hydroelectric power, and one of the largest hydroelectric dams in Asia is in Sup'ung Rodongjagu, 100 m high and over 850 m long, located upstream from Sinuiju, North Korea. The dam has created an artificial lake over a portion of the river, called Sapung Lake. In addition the river is used for transportation, particularly of lumber from its forested banks. The river provides fish for the local population. Further upstream is the Yunfeng Dam.

Crossings[link]

Two bridges crossing the Yalu (Amnokgang) at Sinŭiju and Dandong

• Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge, Dandong, China - Sinŭiju, North Korea
• Ji'an Yalu River Border Railway Bridge, Ji'an China - Manp'o, North Korea

See also[link]

• Geography of China
• Geography of North Korea
• List of China-related topics
• List of Korea-related topics
• List of rivers of Asia
• Chinese–Korean border fence

External links[link]

• Encyclopædia Britannica

References[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Yalu River

Deng Shichang 鄧世昌
Captain Deng Shichang
Born	1849 Guangdong Province, China
Died	17 September 1894 Korea Bay, Yellow Sea
Allegiance	Qing dynasty
Service/branch	Beiyang Fleet
Years of service	1874 -1895
Rank	Captain
Battles/wars	First Sino-Japanese War

Deng Shichang (simplified Chinese: 邓世昌; traditional Chinese: 鄧世昌; Mandarin Pinyin: Dèng Shìchāng; Wade–Giles: Teng Shih-Ch'ang; Jyutping: Dang6 Sai3 Cheung1 courtesy name Zhengqing (正卿).) (1849 - 17 September 1894) was a career military officer in the late Qing dynasty military of China.

Biography[link]

Deng was a native of what is now part of Panyu District in Guangdong Province, China. He was one of the first generation of modern naval officers trained in China, having entered the Fujian Naval Academy (船政學堂) in Mawei, Fujian in 1867 where the French military advisor Prosper Giquel had constructed the Foochow Arsenal and where he caught the attention of by graduating with honors Shen Baozhen in 1874. Deng was sent to the Pescadores and to Keelung in Taiwan on graduation, to reinforce the defenses of those areas after the Taiwan Expedition of 1874 by Japan.

He gradually rose through the ranks, transferred to the Beiyang Fleet in 1880 and was assigned command of the cruiser Zhiyuen in 1887.

During the First Sino-Japanese War, in the Battle of the Yalu River on 17 September 1894. Early in the battle, he moved aggressively against the Japanese command vessel Saikyō Maru, inflicting considerable damage on it, and coming under counterattack by the Japanese flying squadron led by Admiral Tsuboi Kōzō (Yoshino, Takachiho, Akitsushima, and Naniwa). The Japanese cruisers circled Zhiyuan, firing at a more rapid pace and scoring more hits than the poorly-trained Chinese gunners with their obsolete cannon. Deng Shichang ordered Zhiyuan to close on Yoshino to ram, but was hit in the bow by a shell fired from either Naniwa or Takachiho at 1550 hours on 17 September 1894, which caused a massive explosion, after which Zhiyuan rapidly sank. Some 215 officers and crewmen went down with the ship, including Deng, who according to Chinese accounts, refused rescue.

The Qing government eulogized Deng after the battle, granting him a posthumous peerage title, and giving large grants of gold and silver to his mother and widow.

In 1996, the People's Liberation Army Navy named a naval training ship as Shichang in remembrance of him. His birthplace has also been preserved as a memorial museum.

References[link]

• Hummel, Arthur William, ed. Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period (1644–1912). 2 vols. Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1943.
• Paine, S.C.M. The Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895: Perception, Power, and Primacy, 2003, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA, 412 pp. ISBN 0-521-61745-1