Xar Moron River

The Xar Moron river ( Шар мөрөн, "Yellow River";the X is used roughly like in

Hanyu Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means ' Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin'' literally ...

here, i.e. to present an "sh"-like sound. The cyrillic spelling, as used in

Outer Mongolia Outer Mongolia was the name of a territory in the Manchu-led Qing dynasty of China from 1691 to 1911. It corresponds to the modern-day independent state of Mongolia and the Russian republic of Tuva. The historical region gained ''de facto'' ...

, would be Шар Мөрөн. Outer Mongolians, however, nowadays usually use the name "Shar Mörön" to refer to the larger

Yellow River The Yellow River, also known as Huanghe, is the second-longest river in China and the List of rivers by length, sixth-longest river system on Earth, with an estimated length of and a Drainage basin, watershed of . Beginning in the Bayan H ...

. ) is a river in

Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of China. Its border includes two-thirds of the length of China's China–Mongolia border, border with the country of Mongolia. ...

, in

northeast China Northeast China () is a geographical region of China, consisting officially of three provinces Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang. The heartland of the region is the Northeast China Plain, the largest plain in China with an area of over . The regi ...

. It flows through the grasslands of that region, forming a valley that is hospitable to both farming and herding. The valley was once home to the

Khitan people The Khitan people (Khitan small script: ; ) were a historical Eurasian nomads, nomadic people from Northeast Asia who, from the 4th century, inhabited an area corresponding to parts of modern Mongolia, Northeast China and the Russian Far East. ...

. The Xar Moron is the source of the Xiliao River (西辽河), which in turn is one of the headwaters of the Liao River. The musical instrument '' Xiqin'' ( 奚琴), the ancestor of China's ''

huqin ''Huqin'' () is a family of bowed string instruments, more specifically, a spike fiddle popularly used in Chinese music. The instruments consist of a round, hexagonal, or octagonal sound box at the bottom with a neck attached that protrudes ...

'' family of bowed string instruments, is believed to have originated here with the Khitans, who were formerly called Xi ( 奚) by the Chinese. Rivers of Inner Mongolia History of the Khitans {{China-river-stub