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For other Yellow Rivers, see Yellow River (disambiguation).
The Huang Helisten ▶() (Chinese: 黃河; pinyin: Huáng Hé; Wade-Giles: Hwang-ho; literally Yellow River) is, at 5,463 km, the second longest river in China, after the Yangtze or Chang Jiang.
The headwaters of the Huang He lie in the Kunlun Mountains in north-western Qinghai province, where the river originates at an elevation of 4,500 m in the Yueguzonglie Basin located on the northern slope of the Bayankara Mountains in the Qingzang Plateau, or Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. From its source, the river flows at first eastwards, forms a bend in south-eastern direction and then flows east again until it reaches the town of Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu Province, where its Great Northern Bend starts. The bend extends northward through the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region into Inner Mongolia.
The river turns then to flow almost straight to the south, forming the border between the Provinces of Shaanxi and Shanxi. About 130 km northeast of Xi'an, the capital of Shaanxi Province, the Huang He turns again to flow eastwards once more. It reaches the coastal lowlands of Eastern China near the town of Kaifeng and flows through them towards its mouth in northeastern direction and empties into Bohai. In total, it drains an area of 944,970 km² (364,417 square miles).
Despite this large drainage area, the water flow of the Huang He is comparatively small. It amounts to only one fifteenth of that of the Yangtze and only one-fifth of that of the Pearl River, although the drainage area of the latter is less than half that of the Huang He. This is due to the predominant aridity of the Huang He's drainage area, which contains the Ordos Desert along the river's northern bend. Although the eastern parts of the drainage area in Henan and Shandong are much wetter, they cannot compensate for the effect of the arid portions.
Cradle of Chinese Civilization
During the long history of China, the Huang He has been considered a blessing as well as a curse and has been nicknamed both "China's Pride" (Zhōngguó de Jiāoào) and "China's Sorrow" (Zhōngguó de Tòng). Records indicate that, from 602 BC to present, the river's course made at least 5 major large-scale changes in direction and its levees were breached more than 1,500 times. A major course change that took place in 1194 took over the Huai River drainage system throughout the next 700 years. The mud in the Huang He literally blocked the mouth of the Huai River and made thousands homeless. The Yellow River adopted its present course in 1897 after the final course change occurred in 1855. Currently, Huang He flows through Jinan, capital of the Shandong province and ends in the Bohai Sea (Bohai Gulf).
The river gets its yellow color mostly from the fine-grained calcareous silts originated from the Loess Plateau which are carried in the flow. Centuries of silt deposition and diking has caused the river to flow above the surrounding farmland, making flooding a critically dangerous problem. Flooding of the Huang He has created some of the highest death tolls in recent history, with the 1887 Huang He flood killing 900,000-2,000,000 and the 1931 Huang He flood killing 1,000,000-3,700,000. In 1938, during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Nationalist troops under Chiang Kai-Shek broke the levees holding back the Yellow River in order to stop the advancing Japanese troops. The river at that time flooded a huge area and the floodwaters took some 500,000-900,000 lives.
Another reason that causes floods is the ice dam. There have been 11 such major floods in the past century in Inner Mongolia where the Yellow River flows across, causing tremendous loss of life and properties. Explosives dropped from aircraft are used nowadays to break the ice dams.
Sometimes Huang He is literally spoken as the Zhuo Liu (濁流), or the Muddy Flow. The Chinese expression "when the Yellow River flows clear" is similar to the English expression "when hell freezes over."
Tributaries
The Wei River and Fen River are the chief tributaries of Huang He.
Hydroelectric Power Dams
Hydroelectric power dams were built across the Yellow River at Liujia Gorge, Lanzhou, Sanmen Gorge, and Xiaolangdi.
Provinces and Cities on the Yellow River
The provinces of Hebei and Henan derive their names from the Huang He. Their names mean respectively "north" and "south of the (Yellow) River".
Major cities located along the Huang He include (starting from the source): Lanzhou, Wuhai, Baotou, Kaifeng, and Jinan. The upper reaches of the river were first explored by Nikolai Przhevalsky in the 1880s.
Yellow River in Art and Literature
The Yellow River has always been a source of inspiration for poets, writers, musicians and other artists.
Further reading
- Sinclair, Kevin. 1987. The Yellow River: A 5000 Year Journey Through China. (Based on the television documentary). Child & Associates Publishing, Chatswood, Sydney, Australia. ISBN 0-86777-347-2
External link
See also
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