Upon emerging from the Kunlun gorges, the Yarkand loses the characteristics of a raging mountain torrent and spreads out in many branches over an alluvial fan to irrigate the Yarkand oasis. The oasis, one of the largest in Sinkiang, contains the towns of Yarkand (So-ch'e) and Tse-p'u (Posgam). Upon leaving the Yarkand oasis, the river flows north past Mai-kai-t'i (Merket-Bazar) and then northeast around the eastern margins of the Takla Makan desert. South of the Aksu oasis it joins the Kashgar, Aksu and Khotan rivers to form the Tarim.

Now do thy speedy utmost, Meg, / And win the key-stane of the brig;

… they never find ways sufficient to compass that end.

The refrein of Spenser's Prothalamion turns upon “the Thames”; of his Epithalamion on “the echoing woods”.