The Razdolnaya (russian: Раздольная, formerly: Суйфун ''Suyfun'') or Suifen () is a

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the ...

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, sli ...

and

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...

. It flows into the Amur Bay of the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it h ...

The name

''Suifen'' is the

Manchu The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized ethnic minority in China and the people from whom Manchuria derives its name. The Later Jin (1616–1636) and Q ...

word ''(suifun)'' for

awl Awl may refer to: Tools * Bradawl, a woodworking hand tool for making small holes * Scratch awl, a woodworking layout and point-making tool used to scribe a line * Stitching awl, a tool for piercing holes in a variety of materials such as lea ...

, referring to the shape of a species of '' Oncomelania'' snail. In Russian, the river was originally known under the same Manchu / Chinese name (rendered as Суйфун (Suifun) in Russian). In 1972, in the aftermath of the Zhenbao Island incident (1969),

toponym Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' ( proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name o ...

s of Chinese origin in

Primorsky Krai Primorsky Krai (russian: Приморский край, r=Primorsky kray, p=prʲɪˈmorskʲɪj kraj), informally known as Primorye (, ), is a federal subject (a krai) of Russia, located in the Far East region of the country and is a part of t ...

were replaced en masse with newly designed Russian names; as part of this project, the Russian part of the Suifen received the name ''Razdolnaya'', which can be translated from Russian as "widely flowing".

Geography

The source of the Suifen is the

confluence In geography, a confluence (also: ''conflux'') occurs where two or more flowing bodies of water join to form a single channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river ( main stem); ...

of the Xiaosuifen (Lesser Suifen) River and the Dasuifen (Greater Suifen) River in

Heilongjiang Heilongjiang () formerly romanized as Heilungkiang, is a province in northeast China. The standard one-character abbreviation for the province is (). It was formerly romanized as "Heilungkiang". It is the northernmost and easternmost province ...

Suifenhe City Suifenhe () is a county-level city in southeastern Heilongjiang province, People's Republic of China, located where the former Chinese Eastern Railway crosses the border with Russia's town of Pogranichny, Primorsky Krai. In January 2014, Suife ...

was named after the Chinese name of the river. Downstream of the city, the river enters Russian territory, and flows into Amur Bay through

Khanka Lowlands Lake Khanka (russian: о́зеро Ха́нка) or Lake Xingkai (), is a freshwater lake on the border between Primorsky Krai, Russia and Heilongjiang province, Northeast China (at ). Etymology On the Delisle map of 1706, the lake is named ...

. The length of the river is , of which is in Russia; the

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

covers . The major tributaries of the river are the

Granitnaya The Granitnaya (russian: Гранитная, formerly Ушагоу ''Ushagou'', , literally "Hubutu River"), is a river located on the border between Primorsky Krai of Far Eastern Russia and the Heilongjiang Heilongjiang () formerly romanized ...

(99 km), the

Borisovka Borisovka (russian: Бори́совка) is the name of several inhabited localities in Russia. Altai Krai As of 2010, two rural localities in Altai Krai bear this name: *Borisovka, Uglovsky District, Altai Krai, a '' selo'' in Laptevsky Selsovi ...

(86 km) and the

Komarovka Komarovka (russian: Комаровка) is the name of several types of inhabited localities in Russia, rural localities in Russia: *Komarovka, Astrakhan Oblast, a rural locality (a selo) in Nikolo-Komarovsky Selsoviet, Kamyzyaksky District, Astrak ...

(76 km, main tributary Rakovka).primpogoda.ru
/ref> The city

Ussuriysk Ussuriysk (russian: Уссури́йск) is a city in Primorsky Krai, Russia, located in the fertile valley of the Razdolnaya River, north of Vladivostok, the administrative center of the krai, and about from both the China–Russia border an ...

was founded in 1866 at the confluence of the Suifen and Komarovka rivers.

References

Drainage basins of the Sea of Japan Rivers of Heilongjiang Rivers of Primorsky Krai {{China-river-stub