China is abundant in rivers with over 50,000 each of which cover over 100 square kilometers. Among them, over 1,500 are rivers that are greater than 1,000 square square kilometers. All these rivers flow east and southward with the landscape to the sea. Among the outflowing rivers, the trunkstream of the Yangtze River is 6,300 kilometers, the longest in China and the third in the world. The Yellow River is the second longest river in China, the trunk-stream of which is 5,464 kilometers.

There are a lot of inflowing rivers in the western and northern parts of China. The longest is the Tarim River in the south of Xinjiang, which is 2,179 kilometers.

The Grand Canal, also by the name Beijing - Hangzhou Canal, is the greatest water conservancy project in ancient China. It starts from Beijing in the north to Hangzhou in the south. Being 1,794 kilo-meters in length, it is the longest canal in the world.