Yangtze river in a broad sense refers to the 6397-kilomater-long mainstream from Tuotuo river to the estuary in Shanghai. But normally, people regard Yibin, Sichuan Province where the Jinsha river and the Minjiang river converge as the beginning of Yangtze river.

The Yangtze river, running from Yibin through the Three Gorges, plains and to the East China Sea, connects the upstream and downstream areas, the left and right bank areas, and mainstream and branch areas, forming a systematic social network and breeding the brilliant Chinese civilization. Yangtze river area has become the economic center of China.

In fact, people have been arguing over the authentic origin between the Minjiang river and the Jinsha river. In middle and late Ming dynasty, Xu Xiake, a Chinese geographer, made it clear that Jinsha river was the origin of Yangtze river through investigation and deduction.