The Mekong or Mekong River is a trans-boundary river in East Asia and Southeast Asia. 795,000 km2 (307,000 sq mi), discharging 475 km3 (114 cu mi) of water annually. From its headwaters within the Tibetan Plateau, the river runs via Southwest China (where it's formally called the Lancang River), Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and southern Vietnam. The excessive seasonal variations in move and the presence of rapids and waterfalls within the Mekong make navigation troublesome. Even so, the river is a significant commerce route between Tibet and Southeast Asia. The construction of hydroelectric dams along the Mekong in the 2000s by way of the 2020s has triggered severe problems for the river's ecosystem, including the exacerbation of drought. The Mekong was initially known as Mae Nam Khong from a contracted type of Tai shortened to Mae Khong. Khong is the correct title referred to as "River Khong". Yangtze earlier than turning into a generic phrase for major rivers. To the early European traders, the Mekong River was also referred to as Mekon River, May-Kiang River and Cambodia River. Chinese: 湄公河; Meigōng he. ̞m̥' means 'river' or 'water', right here it means 'river', 'kʰrɔːŋ̊' means 'canal'. So 'ŏ̞m̥ kʰrɔːŋ̊' means 'canal river'. The Mekong rises because the Za Qu (Tibetan: རྫ་ཆུ་, Wylie: rDza chu, ZYPY: Za qu; Chinese: 扎曲; pinyin: Zā Qū) and shortly turns into known because the Lancang River (simplified Chinese: 澜沧江; conventional Chinese: 瀾滄江; pinyin: Lancāng Jiāng, from the old title of Lao kingdom Lan Xang; the characters might also be actually understood as "turbulent inexperienced river").
