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.