Chinese Lancang Jiang or Lan-Ts'ang Chiang
Longest river of Southeast Asia.
Rising in eastern Tibet, China, it flows south across the highlands of Yunnan province. It then forms part of the border between Myanmar (Burma) and Laos , as well as between Laos and Thailand . It runs through Laos and Cambodia before entering the China Sea in a delta south of Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam after a course of 2,700 mi (4,350 km). Vientiane and Phnom Penh stand on its banks. Its lower course has about one-third of the combined population of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam. In 1957 the UN initiated the Mekong River Development Project, an international effort to harness the river for hydroelectricity and irrigation.