The Ulungur River / Urungu River or Urungu (, zh, c=乌伦古河, p=Wūlúngǔ hé), in its upper reaches in Mongolia known as the Bulgan River (), is a river of

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

and

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

. It rises in the

Altai Mountains The Altai Mountains (), also spelled Altay Mountains, are a mountain range in Central Asia, Central and East Asia, where Russia, China, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan converge, and where the rivers Irtysh and Ob River, Ob have their headwaters. The ...

in western Mongolia, flows south into China's

Xinjiang Xinjiang,; , SASM/GNC romanization, SASM/GNC: Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Sinkiang, officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People' ...

(

Altay Prefecture Altay Prefecture is located in Northern Xinjiang, People's Republic of China. It has an area of and a population of 561,667 (2000). It is a part of the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture. As of the 2000 census, Altay was the only major subdivisi ...

), where it turns north-west to empty into the

Ulungur Lake Ulungur Lake is located in Fuhai County, Xinjiang, China. With an area of 1,035 square kilometers, the lake is one of China's ten largest freshwater lakes. Its main tributary is the Ulungur River. It is an endorheic lake, though the Irtysh R ...

. It is about 700 km long. The Irtysh–Karamay Canal crosses the Ulungur River at , on an aqueduct.

Geological history

In the early

Quaternary The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), as well as the current and most recent of the twelve periods of the ...

, the Ulungur (as well as the upper Irtysh) flowed into the

Dzungarian Basin The Junggar Basin (), also known as the Dzungarian Basin or Zungarian Basin, is one of the largest sedimentary basins in Northwest China. It is located in Dzungaria in northern Xinjiang, and enclosed by the Tarbagatai Mountains of Kazakhstan in ...

, terminating in a large lake (the "Old Manas Lake") in the region of today's

Lake Manas The Manas Lake () is a salt lake in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. It is located in the western part of the Dzungarian Basin, within the Gurbantünggüt Desert. Administratively, the lake is in Hoboksar Mongol Autonomous County; the c ...

. Later tectonic movements redirected the Ulungur onto its current course.

Wildlife

The Sino-Mongolian beaver, ''Castor fiber birulai'', is found only in the basin of the Ulungur River. The population is considered endangered. The Bulgan Beaver Nature Reserve (; ) has been established on the

Bulgan River Bulgan may refer to: * Bulgan Province, a province (aimag) of Mongolia * Bulgan (city), the capital of Bulgan province * Bulgan Airport, the airport of Bulgan city * Bulgan Gol, a upstream river of Ulungur River * several districts (sums) in differe ...

(a tributary of the Ulungur River) in Qinggil (Qinghe) County in 1980 to protect the creatures.

References

Links

The river Bulgan Gol
Rivers of Xinjiang Rivers of Mongolia {{Mongolia-river-stub