KUEI RIVER

Wade-Giles romanization Kuei Chiang, Pinyin Gui Jiang, conventional Kwei Kiang northern tributary of the Hsi River, southern China. The Kuei River rises in the Mao-erh Mountains to the north of Kuei-lin in the northern part of the Kwangsi Chuang Autonomous Region and flows southward to join the Hsi River at Wu-chou on the border of Kwangsi Chuang and Kwangtung province. The level of the river varies from season to season, and its course has many dangerous rapids. Shallow-draft junks can reach P'ing-lo and, during the high-water season, get as far as Kuei-lin. Above Kuei-lin the ancient Ling Canal, constructed in the 2nd century BC, leads over the watershed to connect the Kuei River with the upper waters of the Hsiang River in Hunan province. The Kuei River is also followed by a main highway from Hunan into Kwangsi Chuang and Kwangtung; the river itself serves as an important means of transporting the timber that is felled in the forests of northeastern Kwangsi Chuang to the Hsi River and thence to Canton.