Yang-tsze-kiang, or the Blue, or Great, River, the largest river in China and in the East; rises in the plateau of Tibet, and after a course of 3200 m., draining and irrigating great part of China by the way, falls by a wide estuary into the Yellow Sea, terminating near Shanghai; it has numerous tributaries, some of great length, and is of great value to the country as a waterway; it is navigable 1000 m. from its mouth, and at Hankow, 700 m. up, is a mile in width.