The Liao River is the principal river in southern Northeast China, and one of the seven main river systems in mainland China. The province of Liaoning and the Liaodong Peninsula derive their names from this river. The river is also popularly known as the "mother river" in Northeast China. Coursing long, the Liao River system drains an catchment basin of over , but its mean discharge is quite small at only about , about one-twentieth that of the Pearl River. The Liao River has an exceedingly high sediment load because many parts of it flow through powdery loess.