Mekong Valley

The Mekong is a trans-boundary river in Southeast Asia. It is the world's twelfth longest river and the seventh longest in Asia. Its estimated length is 4,350 km (2,703 mi), and it drains an area of 795,000 km2 (307,000 sq mi), discharging 475 km3 (114 cu mi) of water annually.From the Tibetan Plateau the river runs through China's Yunnan Province, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. In 1995, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam established the Mekong River Commission (MRC) to manage and coordinate the use and care of the Mekong. In 1996 China and Myanmar became 'dialogue partners' of the MRC and the six countries now work together in a cooperative framework. The extreme seasonal variations in flow and the presence of rapids and waterfalls in the Mekong make navigation difficult. Even so, the river is a major trade route between western China and Southeast Asia. The English name 'Mekong' is derived from the Khmer name មេគង្គ Mékôngk. The Khmers named the Mekong River after the Ganges River. In Khmer, Mékôngk is itself glossed as 'Mother Ganges', from mé ('mother') and taking kôngk as a form of kôngkea ('Ganges').In Thai and Lao, mae nam ('mother of water') is used for any major river and khong is the proper name. As such, Thai and Lao locals often refer to it in English as the 'River Khong'. Khong itself, however, is an archaic word meaning 'river' or 'the river', cognate with Chinese 江 whose Old Chinese pronunciation has been reconstructed as /*kˤroŋ/ and which long served as the proper name of the Yangtze before becoming a generic word for major rivers.