Han River (Hanshui)

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The Han River (traditional Chinese: 漢江; simplified Chinese: 汉江; pinyin: Hàn Jiāng) it is a left tributary of the Yangtze River (Cháng Jiāng) with a length of 1532 km. Historically it was referred to as Hànshuǐ (traditional Chinese: 漢水, lit. "Han water") and the name is still occasionally used today.

The Han River rises in southwestern Shaanxi and then crosses into Hubei. It merges with the Yangtze at Wuhan, a city of several million inhabitants. The merging rivers divide the city of Wuhan into three areas, that of Wuchang (on the south side of the Yangtze, across the river from the mouth of the Han River), Hankou (on the north side of the Yangtze, downstream from the mouth of the Han), and Hanyang (on the north side of the Yangtze, upstream from the mouth of the Han).

The name of the Han kingdom and the later Han Dynasty and subsequently of the China's majority ethnic group apparently derives from this river.