The world’s narrowest river世界上最窄的河流

赵海峰

中国的耗来河是世界上最窄的河流，河流最宽处只有几十厘米。

The Haolai River， inChina， is apparently thenarrowest river in theworld， measuring only afew dozen centimeters atits widest point. The Haolai River， on theInner Mongolia Plateau in north China， isover 17?kilometer?long but has an averagewidth of just 15 centimeters. At its narrow?est place， it is just 4?centimeter?wide.

Its hard to believe that a river likeHaolai actually exists， but according to Chinese experts， it has been flowing th?rough the Gongger Grassland for at least10，000 years. Apparently， it stems from anunderground spring and flows into the Da?lai Nur Lake in the Hexigten Grassland na?ture reserve.

Although some would say that Haolaiis too narrow to even be considered a river，the fact is that size is not a distinguishingfactor between rivers，streams and creeks. Haolaiisapermanentbodyofwater，flowing steadily throughoutthe year， and it has all thedisguising elements of a river， such as aclearly defined basin， flood?meadow （洪水草甸）， etc.

Haolai is also known as the“Book Bridge River”， because of a folk story in?volving a boy who tripped while trying tocross the river， dropping his book right overone of the narrowest parts of Haolai. Thebook became a useful bridge for ants thatwere trying to make it to the other side， andthe name Book Bridge River got stuck.

Reading Check

Why does Haolai consider to be ariver according to the text？