Source of the Qinhuai River

Survey

The Qinhuai is a tributary of the lower Yangtze and has a northern and a southern source (Jiangsu Provincial Qinhuai River Water Conservancy Project Management Office, basin overview page): the northern source, the Jurong River, rises on the southern slope of Baohua Mountain in Jurong City, and the southern source, the Lishui River, rises on Donglu Mountain in Lishui County, Nanjing. The two rivers join to form the main stream of the Qinhuai at Xibeicun, Fangshandai, in Jiangning District, Nanjing, and the main stream runs past Fangshan north-west to Shangfangmen and into the city of Nanjing. The same page gives the length from the northern source to the Sancha River as 110 km and the whole catchment as 2631 sq km; the basin is shaped like a palm-leaf fan, about 50 km each way, with hills and mountains making up 80 per cent of the rim and low-lying polder land and river and lake water 20 per cent of the middle. The page uses the old name Lishui County, which became a district in 2013; this entry records the wording and notes that it is now Lishui District.

The word "source" is used in more than one official account on the Lishui side, and they point at different things. Four of them make the mountain, Donglu Mountain, the source. The Jiangsu Provincial Local Gazetteers Office records that Donglu Mountain has a main peak of 291 m, lies about 10 km east of Yongyang Subdistrict and is a landmark mountain of the Qinhuai headwaters in Nanjing, with three springs in the mountain, one of which reaches the Qinhuai. The district government's overview page records that Donglu Mountain is one of the eight old Zhongshan scenes, "Donglu's layered peaks", that by tradition the Eastern Han scholar Yan Ziling built a hut and lived in seclusion here, which gave the mountain its name, and that it holds the headwaters of the hundred-li Qinhuai, with Donglu Mountain Guanyin Temple in the mountain. A report reprinted on the Nanjing Municipal Water Resources Bureau website in September 2025 records that a full-line survey of the Qinhuai basin within Nanjing, organised jointly by the Nanjing Water Conservancy Society and the Nanjing Municipal Qinhuai River Channel Management Office, went first to "the southern source of the Qinhuai, Donglu Mountain in Lishui District", the text putting the team "at the source of the Qinhuai". Annex 1 to the third batch of district-level cultural relic sites (Li Zheng Fa [2017] No. 197) lists an item named "the Qinhuai headwaters", its detailed location given as Donglu Mountain, Yongyang Town, its period left as a dash.

Two further accounts make a river the source, and they name different rivers. The Jiangsu Provincial Qinhuai River Water Conservancy Project Management Office ties the southern source to the Lishui River, in the passage quoted above. The district government office's Ecological Rivers and Lakes Action Plan of Lishui District, Nanjing (2019–2020) (Lu Zheng Ban Fa [2019] No. 92), in a passage on drawing out water culture, lists "Shijiu Lake, the Tiansheng Bridge and Yanzhi River, and the Yigan River as the Qinhuai source" among the district's river and lake resources, tying the source to the Yigan River. The two accounts name two different rivers; this entry sets them side by side and chooses between neither.

The course of the southern source system from source to junction can be strung into one line from water conservancy and planning sources. Zhongshan Reservoir lies on the upper Yigan River in the south-east of Lishui District (district government reply to deputies' proposals, November 2023). The Yigan River begins at Zhongshan Reservoir, runs through Lishui District and Jiangning District, and joins the Sangan River at Wangjiawei Ferry before flowing into the Lishui River (Jiangsu Provincial Department of Water Resources, 3 July 2023). The Ergan River is a main tributary of the Lishui River, the southern source of the Qinhuai (district water affairs bureau, Environmental Impact Report Form for the Ergan River Desilting Project, December 2019). The Master Plan for the Wuxiang Mountain National Forest Park, Nanjing (2023–2035) records that water on the north side of the park leaves by the Yigan and Lishui rivers for the Qinhuai. The Lishui River itself is given as 6.5 km long on the district government's geographical position page. The junction outside the district is at Xibeicun, Fangshandai, in Jiangning District, and the river reaches the Yangtze at the Sancha River in the city of Nanjing.

The name of the Qinhuai also appears in Lishui in a waterway project. The Jiangsu Provincial Department of Transport records that on 29 December 2020 the Honglan ship lock and six bridges including Maojiacun Bridge, all part of the Qinhuai River (Lishui Shijiu Lake to Jiangning Pengfu section) waterway regulation project, passed completion inspection. The section name is recorded as written; this site does not infer the line of the waterway from it. Honglan, which appears in the section and lock names, was a town until it became a subdistrict in 2018 (Department of Civil Affairs of Jiangsu Province, county-level and below administrative division changes in Jiangsu, 2018).

Periods and areas

This entry is not divided by period: "source" is a spatial statement, and the years the sources give are years of documents and of a survey, not stages in the history of the headwaters. It is divided two ways, both following official accounts.

By the object the word "source" points at, using the documents above:

• At the mountain, Donglu Mountain: the Jiangsu Provincial Local Gazetteers Office (main peak 291 m, one of three springs reaching the Qinhuai), the district government's overview page (the headwaters of the hundred-li Qinhuai), the report reprinted by the Nanjing water bureau (the southern source of the Qinhuai, Donglu Mountain in Lishui District), and the third batch of district-level relic sites (an item named "the Qinhuai headwaters", located at Donglu Mountain, Yongyang Town).
• At the river, the Lishui River: the Jiangsu Provincial Qinhuai River Water Conservancy Project Management Office, basin overview page (the southern source, the Lishui River, rises on Donglu Mountain).
• At the river, the Yigan River: the district government office's Ecological Rivers and Lakes Action Plan (2019–2020) (the Yigan River as the Qinhuai source).

By the order of the southern source system from source to junction, using water conservancy, planning and district sources:

• Source mountain: Donglu Mountain, about 10 km east of Yongyang Subdistrict, with three springs in the mountain, one of which reaches the Qinhuai (Jiangsu Provincial Local Gazetteers Office).
• Upper storage: Zhongshan Reservoir, on the upper Yigan River in the south-east of Lishui District, begun in November 1957 and closed to store water in May 1959 (district government reply to deputies' proposals, November 2023).
• Main rivers: the Yigan River begins at Zhongshan Reservoir, runs through Lishui and Jiangning districts, and joins the Sangan River at Wangjiawei Ferry before flowing into the Lishui River (Jiangsu Provincial Department of Water Resources, 3 July 2023); the Ergan River is a main tributary of the Lishui River (district water affairs bureau, environmental impact report form, December 2019).
• Trunk stretch: the Lishui River, given as 6.5 km long on the district government's geographical position page.
• Junction and mouth outside the district: the two sources join to form the main stream of the Qinhuai at Xibeicun, Fangshandai, in Jiangning District, and the main stream reaches the Yangtze at the Sancha River in the city of Nanjing (Jiangsu Provincial Qinhuai River Water Conservancy Project Management Office, basin overview page).

The northern source, the Jurong River, and the southern slope of Baohua Mountain lie in Jurong City; the junction of the two sources lies in Jiangning District; and the mouth lies in the city of Nanjing. All three are outside Lishui District, and this entry records the wording without describing that ground.

Open questions

• The accounts of the source point at three objects, and all are set side by side: the mountain Donglu Mountain (Jiangsu Provincial Local Gazetteers Office; district government overview page; report reprinted by the Nanjing water bureau, 22 September 2025; third batch of district-level relic sites, Li Zheng Fa [2017] No. 197), the river Lishui River (Jiangsu Provincial Qinhuai River Water Conservancy Project Management Office, basin overview page) and the river Yigan River (Lu Zheng Ban Fa [2019] No. 92). They are not the same thing, and this site neither merges them nor picks one.
• The statement that the southern source, the Lishui River, rises on Donglu Mountain has so far been found only on the basin overview page of the Jiangsu Provincial Qinhuai River Water Conservancy Project Management Office; that page uses the old name Lishui County, and citations must note that it is now Lishui District.
• The Yigan River and the Lishui River are two rivers, not two names for one water body: the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Water Resources records that the Yigan joins the Sangan River at Wangjiawei Ferry and then flows into the Lishui River, so that the Yigan is a tributary of the Lishui. The "Yigan River as the Qinhuai source" and "the southern source, the Lishui River, rises on Donglu Mountain" therefore point at different water bodies and may not be rewritten into one another.
• The district-level relic item "the Qinhuai headwaters" is a cultural relic site, not a determination of the river's source; its period is left as a dash in the third batch list, and this site does not supply one.
• A media report is not a determination: the report reprinted by the Nanjing water bureau calls Donglu Mountain the southern source of the Qinhuai and Xibeicun, Fangshandai, the point where the two sources join, both narrative statements. "Source of the Qinhuai" and "the Qinhuai's origin" are not a statutory place name or the name of a protected area, and the report may not be used to write that a particular document in a particular year identified Donglu Mountain as the source.
• Whole-basin figures are figures for the whole Qinhuai: 2631 sq km and 110 km from the northern source to the Sancha River (Jiangsu Provincial Qinhuai River Water Conservancy Project Management Office). These are not the same statistical range as the 464.82 sq km of the Qinhuai basin within Lishui on the district government's geographical position page, and the two may not be compared or subtracted.
• Two figures for the Lishui River cover different things: a length of 6.5 km (district government, geographical position page) and a catchment of 680 sq km (district water affairs bureau, environmental impact report form, December 2019, including the Yigan, Ergan and Sangan rivers). Whether the 680 sq km includes the stretch below the Sangan junction is not stated in that document; this entry records the figure and does not infer.
• The section name "Lishui Shijiu Lake to Jiangning Pengfu section" of the Qinhuai River waterway regulation project is recorded as written, and this site does not infer the line of the waterway or the river reaches it follows from it. Honglan, which appears in the section and lock names, is one place name; it was a town until it became a subdistrict in 2018 (Department of Civil Affairs of Jiangsu Province).
• The Periods and areas section sets out no periods in time: the available sources give no comparable basis for dating changes in the headwaters themselves, and every year given in this entry is a year of a document or of a survey, not a stage in the history of the headwaters.