It's almost as if these strips of paper are flowing, one by one, from the Ertix River into the Heilongjiang, he thought.

As with the Brahmaputra, there are also persisting concerns that China has plans to divert the Irtysh, though in both cases Chinese officials have stressed there are no such plans.

You were spoiled in your youth by the freedom of the Ertix River in the north country.

Tan, linear dunes at image center (on the south side of the Irtysh River) dominate the view.

I was not yet twenty then, and I crossed the Ertix River clinging to a horse's neck.