The three most important and longest rivers are the Yangtze, the Yellow River (Hwangho) and the Xi Jiang, followed by the Mekong, Perlfluss, Brahmaputra and Amur. The rivers flowing below the geographical conditions from west to east, ie from the high regions with snow and glaciers and little precipitation in the plains with plenty of rainfall.

The waters in China with large degrees of pollution to fight, it was the Tai Lake rehabilitated, because of its pollution in June 2007 for six days the water had to be abandoned. The cleaning of this lake alone costs around 108.5 billion yuan (10 billion euros).