Yangtze River

Yangtze River 

The Yangtze has played a major role in the history, culture and economy of China. For thousands of years, the river has been used for water, irrigation, sanitation, transportation, industry, boundary-marking and war. The prosperous Yangtze River Deltagenerates as much as 20% of the PRC's GDP. The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze is the largest hydro-electric power station in the world.[8][9] In mid-2014, the Chinese government announced it was building a multi-tier transport network, comprising railways, roads and airports, to create a new economic belt alongside the river

The Yangtze flows through a wide array of ecosystems and is habitat to several endemic and endangered species including the Chinese alligator, the narrow-ridged finless porpoise, the Chinese paddlefish, the (extinct) Yangtze River dolphin or baiji, and the Yangtze sturgeon. In recent years, the river has suffered from industrial pollution, plastic pollution,[11] agricultural run-off, siltation, and loss of wetland and lakes, which exacerbates seasonal flooding. Some sections of the river are now protected as nature reserves. A stretch of the upstream Yangtze flowing through deep gorges in western Yunnan is part of the Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.