Yellow River: Difference between revisions

For other Yellow Rivers, see Yellow River (disambiguation).

{{Infobox_river | river_name = Huang He

 | image_name = Huanghemap.png
 | caption = Course of the Huang He with major cities
 | origin = Kunlun Mountains, Qinghai Province
 | mouth = Yellow Sea
 | basin_countries = China
 | length = 5,463 km (3,395 mi)
 | elevation = 4,500 m (14,765 ft)
 | discharge = 2,571 m³/s (90,808 ft&sup

The Huang He listen^ⓘ (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).

File:OrdosRegion.jpg

Ordos Desert in 1912

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.

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 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 AD 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, an unusual phenomenon. A significant part of the Yellow River gets frozen at the surface in winter, and in spring, the part at lower latitudes along the north-going segment melts first. As a consequence, the broken pieces of ice are carried downstream (northward) until they reach the point where it is still frozen. Here the ice pieces accumulate and pile up to form a dam of ice which blocks the course of the river. The water behind the ice dam then rises and often to such a height that it breaks the levees that contain the flow of the river and creates disastrous floods. While this phenomenon usually occurs in spring, it can happen as winter sets in when the part at higher latitudes become frozen first. 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 aircrafts are used to break the ice dams.

The Wei River and Fen River are the chief tributaries of Huang He.

Hydroelectric power dams were built across the Yellow River at Liujia Gorge, Lanzhou, Sanmen Gorge, and Xiaolangdi.

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."

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 Mikhailovich Przhevalskiy in the 1880s.

The Yellow River has always been a source of inspiration for poets, writers, musicians and other artists. Poems about the Yellow River by Li Po (701-762) are still read and recited today in China. Xian Xinghai (1905-1945) composed the Yellow River Cantata in 1938 which was adapted by Yin Chengzong in 1969 to the now famous Yellow River Concerto. Shortly before the Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989, Su Xiaokang wrote the poetic script for a popular TV mini-series titled He Shang which drew upon the history of the Yellow River among other things. Yellow River is also a ballet produced by the National Ballet of China.

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

• Huang He delta Information at LSU

See also

• Grand Canal of China
• Geography of China
• North China Plain
• Loess Plateau
• List of rivers of Asia
• List of rivers in China