The Dadu River (Chinese: 大渡河; pinyin: Dàdù Hé; Wade–Giles: Tatu Ho, Yi: ꍩꍠꒉꄿ, romanized: Chot Zhyr Yy Dda),[Note 1] known in Tibetan as the Gyelmo Ngul Chu[1] (Tibetan: རྒྱལ་མོ་རྔུལ་ཆུ་, Wylie: rgyal mo rngul chu), is a major river located primarily in Sichuan province, southwestern China.

The true source of Dadu, and thus the entire Min River system, however, lies in Qinghai Province in the eastern Tibetan Plateau.

In 2013, the China Academy of Sciences announced they had located the geographic source of the Dadu in eastern Darlag County, Qinghai (33°23′16″N 100°17′32″E / 33.38778°N 100.29222°E / 33.38778; 100.29222).

The two stems meet in Aba Prefecture, and continue south as the Dajin Chuan (Chinese: 大金川; pinyin: Dàjīn Chuān; lit.

The Dadu River marks the transition area between traditional Tibet to the west and historic China to the east.

[5] Completed in 803 CE, the Leshan Giant Buddha is a large statue carved into the rock at the confluence of the Dadu and Min Rivers.

Nine days later, on June 10, 1786, the dam broke and the resulting flood extended 1,400 kilometres (870 mi) downstream and killed 100,000 people.