page_title: Geography of Beijing
section_title: Hydrology
hierarchical_section_title: Geography of Beijing / Hydrology
caption_attribution_description: 中文（繁體）‎: 夏季的頤和園昆明湖中文（中国大陆）‎: 夏季的颐和园昆明湖 This is a photo of a (or part of a) Major National Historical and Cultural Site in China identified by the ID CNBJ-010-125
context_page_description: Beijing is a municipality located in North China at the northern tip of the North China Plain, near the meeting point of the Xishan and Yanshan mountain ranges. The city itself lies on flat land that opens to the east and south. The municipality's outlying districts and counties extend into the mountains that surround the city from the southwest to the northeast. The highest peaks are over 2,000 m.
  Beijing Municipality consists of six city districts, eight suburban districts and two rural counties. It covers a total area of
  16,807.8 km². By land area, the municipality is slightly larger than the country of Montenegro, though much of the municipality outside the urban core are sparsely populated mountains and farmland. The terrain is roughly 38% flat and 62% mountainous. The city is 150 km inland from the Bohai Sea via Tianjin Municipality in the southeast. Aside from Tianjin, Beijing is bordered on all other sides by Hebei Province, including a piece wedged between Beijing and Tianjin.
  Historically, Beijing was situated on the border between sedentary agricultural areas to the south and pastoralist regions beyond the mountains to the north.
context_section_description: Several major rivers, including the Yongding, Chaobai, Juma and Wenyu flow through Beijing Municipality. They originate in the highlands of Hebei and Shanxi, cut through the mountains west and north of the city, and eventually flow into the Hai River, which empties into the Bohai Sea. Over the centuries, hydrologists have channeled rivers through the city into man-made lakes, moats, channels and aqueducts, which provide water to the city and drain its refuse, but no longer threaten Beijing with flooding.
  Downtown Beijing has several lakes called hai or sea. During the Yuan Dynasty, the Mongol rulers expanded them and built imperial palace of Dadu around them.  Subsequent emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties used the lakes as imperial gardens.  Today, the three northernmost lakes, Xihai (West Sea), Houhai (Rear Sea) and Qianhai (Front Sea), collectively known as Shichahai, are lined with bars and cafés and known for nightlife.  To their south, Beihai (North Sea) is a city park, and Zhonghai (Central Sea) and Nanhai (South Sea) are part of the Zhongnanhai Compound, residence to China's leaders.  This string of lakes used to form the main riverbed of the Yongding River, which now flows 50–60 km (31–37 mi) to the west.  But 1,800 years ago, the Yongding flowed through Jishuitan and downtown Beijing and then into Longtan Lake and on to Tongzhou.  A major flood in 295 A.D. devastated part of Beijing, then known as Ji.  Just west of Wangfujing, there is still a stretch of Beijing called Shatan or Sandy Beach.
  Today, an aqueduct draws water from the Yongding through Yuyuantan Park to the western city moat, which empties into Liangshui River south of the city.  Another aqueduct draws water from Kunming Lake in the Summer Palace down through the Purple Bamboo Park and into the northern city moat, which also replenishes Shichahai, Beihai and Zhongnanhai.  The northern moats are drained by the Ba River, which flows into the Wenyu River.  The southern and eastern moats are drained by the Tonghui River, which also flow into the Wenyu.
  This network of rivers and aqueducts are fed by reservoirs to the north of the city. The Miyun Reservoir, the largest in the municipality, is created at the confluence of the Chao and Bai Rivers, which forms the Chaobai.  The Yongding, before entering the municipality in Mentougou District, is dammed to create the vast Guanting Reservoir of Hebei Province. Despite these reservoirs, the city of Beijing faces chronic water shortages due to water-intensive agriculture, industry, and population growth.  Under the South-North Water Transfer Project, the city plans to draw water from the Yangtze River through the Grand Canal, which was built 800 years ago for transportation, but now is being upgraded into a major aqueduct.
caption: Kunming Lake in the Summer Palace
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