Tibetannet

The first Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) leaders' meeting will be held on March 23 in south China's city of Sanya. The meeting intends to help build inland areas along the river into a new economic engine.

The Mekong River links six countries, namely China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Traveling along this beautiful, dynamic, and lengthy stretch of water, you are on a journey to explore the history, tranquility, complexity, and future of this diversified region.

Origin and Resources

Featuring a diverse variety of natural landscapes, the Mekong River has provided abundant resources for the countries along the river banks. Its stretch in China is called "Lancang", which shares the same origin with the Yangtze River and the Yellow River.

(Xinhua/ Wu Gang)

This is the breathtaking view of Sanjiangyuan National Nature Reserve in the hinterlands of west China's Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. It consists of sources of three rivers in China. The Lancang River stretch is about 2,100 km, nearly half of its total length of 4,880 km.

(Xinhua/ Wen Tao)

A villager is working in a thousand-year-old salt flat by the riverside in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region. Locals dig wells on hills along the river and obtain salt using techniques dating back to the Tang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.).

Under the setting sun, a Laotian fisherman is hauling in his net along the Mekong River. The annual freshwater fish harvest in the Mekong River is 1.8 million tons, which is the No.1 inland freshwater fishery worldwide.

(Xinhua/VNA)

The Mekong Delta is considered as the largest rice granary in Vietnam, contributing nearly half of Vietnam's total rice output and about 90 percent of rice export volume. In the picture, farmers are harvesting the early summer-autumn rice crop in southern Vietnam.

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Common Interests

Although all six countries are very different, they have many convergent interests. In addition to cultural and art communication, there's much that can be done to boost economic development and ensure peace and security in the region.

To further enhance cooperation, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang proposed the LMC framework in 2014 while attending the 17th China-ASEAN leaders' meeting.

In November 2015, the LMC framework was officially launched by all six countries to enhance security cooperation in the Golden Triangle, a major hub for drug trafficking, as well as strengthen economic cooperation.

(Xinhua/Hu Chao)

Thailand actresses are performing ethnic dances in the "Mekong River National Culture and Arts Festival" in Jinghong City, southwest China's Yunnan Province. The festival has been held every year since 2011, with participation of artists and exhibitors from all six countries along the river.

(Xinhua/ Zhang Keren)

A Chinese policeman is inspecting with a telescope on the Mekong River. Since 2011, law enforcement personnel from China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand have carried out joint patrols on the river to prevent criminal activity, such as trafficking in weapons and drugs.

(Xinhua/Lin Yiguang)

On March 19, 2013, five drug smuggling suspects were arrested in the Mekong anti-drug campaign and were handed over to Chinese police by Laotian counterparts later. The picture shows Chinese police escorting suspected drug dealers upon their arrival at the Changshui Airport of Kunming, southwest China's Yunnan Province, June 10, 2014.

(Xinhua/Hu Chao)

In order to help alleviate drought in Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, China releases emergency water supply from Jinghong Hydropower Station in Dai Autonomous Prefecture of Xishuangbanna, Yunnan Province, to downstream Mekong River from March 15 to April 10, 2016.

Meanwhile, China's Belt and Road Initiative has created greater economic, trade and cultural ties between the six nations along the river. New opportunities have been emerging.

(Xinhua/Lin Yiguang)

A cargo ship cruises on the Mekong River near Guanlei Port in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Yunnan Province. Yunnan has been building a transportation network that links its three neighbours, Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar, in an attempt to raise the province's openness to Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean.

(Xinhua/ Li Mangmang)

Construction on a railway in Thailand that will use technology and equipment developed in China kicked off at the end of 2015. This picture shows a model of the railway project.