page_title: Dadu River
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Dadu River / History
caption_attribution_description: Luding Bridge in Luding, Western Sichuan Province, China.
context_page_description: The Dadu River, known in Tibetan as the Gyelmo Ngul Chu, is a major river located primarily in Sichuan province, southwestern China. The Dadu flows from the eastern Tibetan Plateau into the Sichuan Basin where it joins with the Min River, a tributary of the Yangtze River. Measured from its geographic source, the Dadu is actually longer than the Min and thus forms the main stem of the Min River system.
  Shuangjiangkou Dam, expected to be the tallest dam in the world, is being built on the Dadu River.
context_section_description: The Dadu River marks the transition area between traditional Tibet to the west and historic China to the east.  For this reason, it has long been considered a frontier region and has hosted many conflicts.  For Tibetans, the Dadu is part of the historical province of Kham.  In the Chinese tradition, the Dadu forms the westernmost part of Sichuanese culture.  Kangding, a historical trading post between Tibet and China, is located in the Dadu River basin.
  Upper Dadu River Basin traditionally consists of 18 rGyalrong Principalities, whose language, rGyalrongic, is a distinct branch in the Tibeto-Burman language family.
  Completed in 803 CE, the Leshan Giant Buddha is a large statue carved into the rock at the confluence of the Dadu and Min Rivers.  The Buddha is a popular tourist attraction today. 
  The Kangding Louding earthquake of 1786 caused a landslide dam on the Dadu. Ten days later, on June 10 1786,  the dam broke and the resulting flood extended 1,400 kilometres (870 mi) downstream and killed 100,000 people. It is the second-deadliest landslide disaster on record.
  In the 20th century CE, the Dadu became famous for its Luding Bridge, a historically important bridge crossed by the Chinese Red Army while retreating from the Kuomintang troops during the Long March.
caption: Luding bridge
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 350D DIGITAL", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2006:04:23 14:01:29", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "188", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/500", "EXIF FNumber": "7/2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Unidentified", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2006:04:23 14:01:29", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2006:04:23 14:01:29", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "293791/32768", "EXIF ApertureValue": "118447/32768", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Partial", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "18", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1728", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1152", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "9228", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "864000/437", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "192000/97", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}