Source of the Amazon River the Mantaro. Explorers and scholars have identified each of the three rivers as being the source of the Amazon under one of the three definitions. The Mantaro is the most distant upstream point; the Maraňón is the main stem of the Amazon; and the Apurímac is the most distant source with an uninterrupted flow of water. The Amazon River is the largest river in the world in terms of its discharge into the Atlantic Ocean and either the longest or second longest river in the world, contending with the Nile River for that honor. More than from its mouth, upstream
The River at the Center of the World in time, writing about contemporary times in Shanghai and Nanjing, and writing about events that date back increasingly farther in cities upriver. He makes the travel with a companion — a Chinese lady who is referred to in the book only as "Lily" to protect her identity. The chapter titled "A New Great Wall" is devoted to the Three Gorges Dam, then under construction and fully operational as of 2012. The River at the Center of the World The River at the Center of the World: A Journey Up the Yangtze, and Back in Chinese Time () is a book