Yellow River
- For other Yellow Rivers, see Yellow River (disambiguation).
Huang He (Chinese: 黃河; pinyin: Huáng Hé; Wade–Giles: Hwang-ho); literally the Yellow River, is at 5,463 km the second longest river in China, only surpassed by the Chang Jiang.
It originates from the Yekuzonglie Basin at an elevation of 4,500m in the northern slope of the Bayankera Mountains in the Qingzang Plateau. It drains an areas of 944,970 square kilometres (364417 square miles), but because of the aridity of this area (apart from the eastern part in Henan and Shandong) its flow is only one fifteenth that of the Chang Jiang and only one-fifth that of the Pearl River.
During the long history of China, Huang He was considered a blessing from heaven as well as a devil from hell. 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 from silts that 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, 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.
Sometimes Huang He is literally spoken as the Zhou 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 Huang He. Their names mean respectively "north" and "south of the (Yellow) River".
Other passing cities include: Lanzhou.
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