The
Salween (, , also spelt
Thanlwin; , ; ,
Gyalmo Ngulchu; , literally "Angry River" in Chinese — the river is actually named after the
Nu people living in the area, but Chinese having no phonetic script had to use a character with a similar sound as Nu which happens to be the character for rage; Thai ,
Mae Nam Salawin ; is a
river, about long, that flows from the
Tibetan Plateau into the
Andaman Sea in
Southeast Asia. It drains a narrow and mountainous
watershed of that extends into the countries of
China,
Burma and
Thailand. Steep canyon walls line the swift, powerful and
undammed Salween, one of the longest free-flowing rivers in the world. Its extensive drainage basin supports a
biodiversity comparable with the
Mekong and is home to about 7 million people. In 2003, key parts of the mid-region watershed of the river were included within the
Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas, a
UNESCO World Heritage Site.