The Haihe River
By admin on 2015-01-07

The Haihe River 海河 is one of the great rivers in North China. The five large rivers (the North Canal, the Yongding River, the Daqing River, the Ziya River and the South Canal) converge near Tianjin City to form the Haihe River. The trunk stream, with a total length of 73 kilometers, starts from the Jingang Bridge of Tianjin City. The riverway is narrow and has many bends. The Haihe River valley starts from the western Taihang Mountain and reaches the eastern Bohai Sea, its southern boundary is the Yellow River, and the northern part even reaches the southern edge of the Inner Mongolian Plateau, running across Beijing City, Tianjin City, Hebei Province, Shanxi Province, Shandong Province, Henan Province, Liaoning Province and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Its drainage area is 317,800 square kilometers, accounting for 3.3% of the total national area.

The Haihe River resembles a jade belt running across Tianjin City. It not only has close relationship with the agriculture, industry, waterborne traffic/transportation and the people's life, but also is the important scenic sight of Tianjin City. The best place to view the scenery of the Haihe River is the zonal Haihe Park located near the bank of the Haihe River.   

The Haihe River is situated between the roads and the iron fences of the river's both banks (from the Jingangqiao Bridge to the Guanghua Bridge) as if a green long belt. The two banks of the river in the Park are covered with trees, flowers and grasses. The lawns are like green flannelette blankets with many clusters of shrubs and rosebushes among them. One can see various flowers and grasses in the raised flower terrace, such as the weeping forsythia, flowering peach, Chinese flowering crabapple, pear flower and wistaria in spring, and the everflowering rose, cockscomb and scarlet sage in summer. There are various pavilions in various postures among the green trees and flowering shrubs. There are devious corridors under the shelf of Chinese wisteria. The stone tables and pews under the corridors are for tourists to have a rest. There are spouting springs, flying rain and figure sculptures in different postures in the garden from the Bei'an Bridge to the Jiefang Bridge.    

There are two or three small fishing boats on the Haihe River once in a way. The 100-meter long sculpture and calligraphic work One Hundred Dragons Making Fun in Water is clear and legible. The illuminations at both riverbanks turn on at the same time, they are shining upon the river, and the wave light and the lamp images in the water are mutually twinkling. This beautiful spectacle makes people on the scoop. In addition, people can visit the evening scenery by water in the evening, such as Nezha Stirs Up Trouble in the Sea, the Overlapped Waterfall, the Sound-Control Spouting Spring and the 100 Dragons Making Fun in Water, etc.