The
Pearl River or
Zhu Jiang (, literally "Pearl River", ; ) or less commonly, the
Guangdong River or
Canton River, , is an extensive
river system in
southern China. The name Pearl River is usually used as a catchment term to refer to the watersheds of the
Xi River ("West River"), the
Bei River ("North River"), and the
Dong River ("East River"). These rivers are all considered
tributaries of the Pearl River because they share a common
delta, the
Pearl River Delta. Measured from the farthest reaches of the Xi Jiang, the Pearl River system is China's third longest
river, , after the
Yangtze River and the
Yellow River, and second largest by volume, after the Yangtze. The Pearl River Basin (珠江流域) drains the majority of South Central, (
Guangdong and
Guangxi provinces), as well as parts of
Southwest (
Yunnan,
Guizhou,
Hunan and
Jiangxi provinces) in China, and
Northeast of Vietnam (
Cao Bằng and
Lạng Sơn).