The Mekong River feeds and waters tens of millions people in six countries. The river is an arterythrough China and South-East Asia, linking the cool, dry austerity of the Tibetan Plateau and its tropical delta.

Jo James take a trip downstream…

Rising as an inconspicuous trickle at 5,200m in southern Qinghai, the young Mekong is known as the Za Chu. Flowing southeast across the cold, arid Tibetan Plateau, it starts to tumble downhill. By the time it reaches its first city – Chamdo – it has already dropped two thousand metres. Here the river picks up its second name, Lancang Jiang, which will accompany it through Yunnan to China’s border with Laos.

The Lancang Jiang drains through the fascinating Three Parallel Rivers region; Yangtze to its left, Salween to its right. The drive along the river’s deep valley is dramatic, the road soaring above the swirling, turbid waters below. Only 15–20 per cent of the Mekong’s waters come from this, the river’s upper basin, yet the region is the source of 50 per cent of its sediment load. Yunnan’s red earth is flowing away to the benefit of farmers downstream.

As the river flows out of China, it assumes its most familiar name, Mekong – a contracted form of the Thai and Lao “Mae Nam Khong” meaning “Mother of Waters”. The river demarcates the border between Laos and Myanmar and most of the Thai-Laos border, flowing through the Golden Triangle on its way. Further south the river drops into Cambodia over the Khone Phapheng Falls and carves the country in two before sluicing across the lush Mekong Delta in southwestern Vietnam and dissolving into the South China Sea.

The Mekong has the most concentrated biodiversity of any river. Between 1997 and 2015 an average of two new species were discovered each week. Giant stingrays, huge soft-shelled turtles and enormous catfish are among the spectacular creatures that live here – indeed, the Mekong abounds with some of the largest freshwater fish in the world.It comes as little surprise then, that the river is also one of the most productive inland fisheries in the world. By one staggering estimate, 40 million rural people – fully two-thirds of the rural population – are engaged in the fishing industry.

Despite its importance to fish and fishermen alike, the Mekong is facing a number of environmental challenges as the countries it flows through grow more crowded and more affluent. Deforestation along its banks, dam construction, water pollution and overfishing are impacting communities and threatening ecosystems along its length.The Mekong’s water levels fluctuate wildly between dry season and wet. One might think that annual floods would be a disaster for those living along and in the river. Yet, within normal limits, life along the lower Mekong has evolved to take advantage of this rhythm. Monsoon floods drive fish breeding cycles, deposit sediment on fields and top up region’s groundwater tables. The philosopher Heraclitus told his students that no one ever steps in the same river twice. By the second step, both river and man have changed. The Mekong undergoes more change than most rivers, both along its length and over time.

The range of latitudes and altitudes along the Mekong have made the river into an intricate chain, linking the rocky, austere Tibetan Plateau with Yunnan’s humid cloud forests and South-East Asia’s tropical “rice bowl”, and influencing life along the length of its course.

Yet, the more recent changes driven by humans threaten to upset this delicate balance. It behooves the nations the Mekong flows through to work together to sustain this, the river that sustains them, Mother Mekong.Travel along the Mekong, with us

We have written elsewhere about a visit to Cizhong on the Lancang Jiang, which we visit on this 9-day Yunnan itinerary.
We also cross the Mekong and stay in the Golden Triangle on this lovely 12-day journeyfrom Shangri-La to the Lanna Kingdom.
Finally, our 13-day Indochina: From the Mekong to the Gulf of Thailand itinerary weaves alongside some of the most beautiful stretches of the lower Mekong.