The confluence of the Songhua and Nen Rivers at Songyuan is the city's geographic reason for being — the point where two major river systems of northeastern China meet and where trade, settlement, and later industrial development converged. The waterfront has been developed as a riverside park and promenade, and the confluence is visible from the riverbank where the two distinct water bodies join.
For travellers interested in the ecology of the northeastern Chinese plain, this is a significant spot: the Songhua drainage system extends east to the Changbai range, while the Nen system drains south from the Greater Khingan Mountains in Inner Mongolia. The merged river continues northeast toward Harbin and eventually the Amur. The wetland and grassland ecology around the confluence supports a variety of bird life, particularly during the spring and autumn migration seasons.