What is the Yellow River known for?
The Yellow River, also the third longest river in Asia, is important as it really served to supply the Yellow River Valley (also known as the cradle of Chinese civilization) with water for agriculture and a trading route. It flows from the Bayan Har mountains in Qinghai to the Bohai Sea and is around 3400 miles long.
What is the history of the Yellow River?
What is the history of the Yellow River? Stretching 3395 miles long, the river originates in the Bayankala Mountains in Western China at the Qinghai Province. Flowing through nine provinces, the mouth of the river empties into the Bohai Sea. It is believed the Yellow River has changed course more than 20 times due to severe flooding.
What type of government does the Yellow River have?
Yellow River- Government: Zhou- It was a bureaucracy. Bureaucracy was an assembly of appointed officials. The Zhou king was in charge of defending the kingdom. Nobles or lords are given a territory that is legally owned by the king. Furthermore, what was the social structure of the Yellow River valley civilization?
What is the source of the Yellow River?
The source of the Yellow River is in the Bayankhara Mountain on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in Qinghai Province.
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What does the Yellow River Produce?
The river carries 1.6 billion tons of silt (loess) annually at the point where it descends from the Loess Plateau, and deposits silt in its bed wherever it flows slowly. The silt deposits are very fertile, and the area produces half of China's cotton and more than half of China's wheat.
How important is the Yellow River?
The Yellow River has special importance in the origins of the Chinese civilization. It is referred to as "the Mother River" and "the Cradle of the Chinese civilization" by Chinese. Traditionally, it is believed that the Chinese civilization originated from the Yellow River basin areas.
What benefit does the Yellow River bring to China?
Today, the 5,464-km-long waterway feeds 12 percent of China's population, irrigates 17 percent of its arable land, and supplies water to more than 50 large and medium-sized cities.
How does the Yellow River impact people?
People in the river basin depend directly on these water resources as a basis for their livelihoods, including for food production, hydropower, industry, and domestic supply. In recent years, the river's flow has greatly diminished, affecting the lives of millions.
What are three facts about the Yellow River?
Yellow River Facts — Mother Monster TamedFifth Longest River — Huge Torrent to Muddy Trickle. ... Cradle of Chinese Civilization. ... The Muddiest Major River on Earth. ... The World's Largest "Yellow" Waterfall — Hukou Waterfall. ... Ships Sail on a Raised River — 10m Above the Ground! ... "China's Sorrow" Has Killed Millions by Flooding.More items...•
How do people use the water from Yellow River?
Locating in arid and semi-arid regions mostly, agricultural water in the Yellow River (YR) basin accounts for more than 70% of the total human water consumption. Irrigation is the most important mode of agricultural development, especially in upper reaches (UR).
Is the Yellow River still polluted?
Severe pollution has made one-third of China's Yellow river unusable, according to new research. Known as the country's "mother river", it supplies water to millions of people in the north of China. But in recent years the quality has deteriorated due to factory discharges and sewage from fast-expanding cities.
Which river is called Sorrow of China?
Yellow RiverThere are two major rivers in China - the Huang He or Yellow River and the Yangtze River. The Yellow River is known as the Sorrow of China, because it changed its course and caused frequent floods.
Can you swim in the Yellow River?
BEIJING — Most of the Yellow River, the second-longest in China and the cradle of early Chinese civilisation, is so polluted it is not safe for drinking or swimming, Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday.
What is unique about the Yellow River?
The Yellow River is often called the cradle of Chinese civilization. With a length of 3,395 miles (5,464 km), it is the country's second longest river—surpassed only by the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang)—and its drainage basin is the third largest in China, with an area of some 290,000 square miles (750,000 square km).
What river has caused the most deaths by flooding?
On August 18, 1931, the Yangtze River in China peaks during a horrible flood that kills 3.7 million people directly and indirectly over the next several months. This was perhaps the worst natural disaster of the 20th century. The Yangtze River runs through southern China, one of the most populated areas on Earth.
Why is Yellow River called China's sorrow?
The river is often called "China's sorrow" because millions of people have been killed by flooding. The worst flood disaster in world history occurred in August, 1931 along the Huang He River in China and killed an estimated 3.7 million people.
Why was the Yellow River important to the Shang Dynasty?
The river valley of the Yellow River provided a fertile area for this civilisation to develop. The area was forested and the Shang used wood to build their homes and public buildings; little has survived of their domestic architecture.
Why was the Yellow River important to Ancient China?
Chinese refer to the Yellow river as "the Mother River" and "the Cradle of Chinese Civilization". That is because the Yellow River was the birthplace of ancient Chinese civilizations in the Xia (2100–1600 BC) and Shang (1600–1046 BC) eras - the most prosperous region in early Chinese history.
Why is the Huang He river important?
While the river helps create fertile land that is suited for farming, during certain times of the year the Huang He frequently overflows. The water damages housing and crops across the North China Plain, an important agricultural region.
Why was the Yellow River important for ancient Chinese dynasties quizlet?
The Chinese civilization began along the Yellow River basin around 1700 BCE and soon spread along other rivers in China. Yellow River floods enriched the surrounding soils, allowing farmers to produce surplus crops and domesticate animals.
Why is it called the Yellow River?
The Mandarin Chinese word huang (“yellow”) is a reference to the fine loess sediments that the Yellow River carries to the sea.
How long is the Yellow River?
The Yellow River (Huang He), with a length of 3,395 miles (5,464 kilometres), is China’s second longest river—surpassed only by the Yangtze River (...
Where does the Yellow River originate?
The Yellow River originates in the Bayan Har Mountains, in the eastern Plateau of Tibet, at an elevation above 15,000 feet (4,600 meters).
What cities does the Yellow River flow through?
The Yellow River and its tributaries flow past some of China’s oldest cities, including Lanzhou, Baotou, Xi’an (Sian), Taiyuan, Luoyang, Zhengzhou,...
Where The Name "Yellow River" Came from
The name "Yellow River" comes from the huge amounts of "yellow" loess sediment it carries when flowing through the Loess Plateau. It is the world's...
Yellow River Civilization — China's Cradle
Almost all Chinese agree that the Yellow River Basin was the cradle of Chinese Civilization. A great amount of archeological information proves tha...
What to See Along The Yellow River
Along the Yellow River, there are numerous historic and ancient attractions, and stunning scenery. Top attractions of the Yellow River include fore...
The Importance of The Yellow River
The Yellow River is the most important water resource for the dry north of China, playing an irreplaceable role in economic development, and agricu...
New Yellow River Troubles
With global warming, decrease in rainfall in the Yellow River Basin, and increasing water demands for irrigation, industry, etc., the Yellow River...
Visit Tourist Cities on The Yellow River With China Highlights
Along the Yellow River, there are many worthwhile attractions and many tourist cities, such as Lanzhou, Zhongwei, Yinchuan, Baotou, Yan'an, Luoyang...
What is the Yellow River?
The Yellow River is one of several rivers that are essential for China's existence. At the same time, however, it has been responsible for several deadly floods, including the only natural disasters in recorded history to have killed more than a million people.
Why is the Yellow River unusable?
On 25 November 2008, Tania Branigan of The Guardian filed a report "China's Mother River: the Yellow River", claiming that severe pollution has made one-third of China's Yellow River unusable even for agricultural or industrial use, due to factory discharges and sewage from fast-expanding cities . The Yellow River Conservancy Commission had surveyed more than 8,384 mi (13,493 km) of the river in 2007 and said 33.8% of the river system registered worse than "level five" according to the criteria used by the UN Environment Program. Level five is unfit for drinking, aquaculture, industrial use, or even agriculture. The report said waste and sewage discharged into the system last year totaled 4.29b tons. Industry and manufacturing made up 70% of the discharge into the river with households accounting for 23% and just over 6% coming from other sources.
What was the significance of the Hangu Pass?
From around the beginning of the 3rd century, the importance of the Hangu Pass was reduced , with the major fortifications and military bases moved upriver to Tongguan. In AD 923, the desperate Later Liang general Duan Ning again broke the dikes, flooding 1,000 square miles (2,600 km 2) in a failed attempt to protect his realm's capital from the Later Tang. A similar proposal from the Song engineer Li Chun concerning flooding the lower reaches of the river to protect the central plains from the Khitai was overruled in 1020: the Chanyuan Treaty between the two states had expressly forbidden the Song from establishing new moats or changing river courses.
How many times has the Yellow River flooded?
In the 2,540 years from 595 BC to 1946 AD, the Yellow River has been reckoned to have flooded 1,593 times, shifting its course 26 times noticeably and nine times severely. These floods include some of the deadliest natural disasters ever recorded. Before modern disaster management, when floods occurred, some of the population might initially die from drowning but then many more would suffer from the ensuing famine and spread of diseases.
How big is the Yellow River basin?
The Yellow River basin has an east–west extent of about 1,900 kilometers (1,180 mi) and a north–south extent of about 1,100 km (680 mi). Its total drainage area is about 795,000 square kilometers (307,000 sq mi).
What is the name of the river in China?
Šar Mörön. The Yellow River (Chinese: 黃河, Jin: [xuə xɔ]; Mandarin: Huang he [xwǎŋ xɤ̌] ( listen)) is the second-longest river in China, after the Yangtze River, and the sixth-longest river system in the world at the estimated length of 5,464 km (3,395 mi).
Why did Kua Fu drained the Yellow River?
In Chinese mythology, the giant Kua Fu drained the Yellow River and the Wei River to quench his burning thirst as he pursued the Sun. Historical documents from the Spring and Autumn period and Qin dynasty indicate that the Yellow River at that time flowed considerably north of its present course. These accounts show that after the river passed Luoyang, it flowed along the border between Shanxi and Henan Provinces, then continued along the border between Hebei and Shandong before emptying into Bohai Bay near present-day Tianjin. Another outlet followed essentially the present course.
Why is the Yellow River important?
The Yellow River is the most important water resource for the dry north of China, playing an irreplaceable role in economic development, and agriculture. Since 1960 over 14 dams have been constructed on the river for hydroelectric power, which is vital to northern China's infrastructure.
Why is the Yellow River yellow?
The Yellow River is yellow because of the great amount of yellow silt suspended in the river. The yellow silt (loess) mainly comes from China’s Loess Plateau.
What Troubles is the Yellow River Facing?
The first one is drought. With global warming leading to decrease in rainfall in the Yellow River Basin, and increasing water demands for irrigation, industry, etc., the Yellow River has been used up by its lower reaches since 1972, when it ran dry for the first time in recorded history. The longest dry period lasted 226 days in 1997.
Why is the Yellow River called the Yellow River?
The name "Yellow River" comes from the huge amounts of "yellow" loess sediment it carries, which are eroded when it flows through the Loess Plateau. It is the world's major river with the most excessive siltation.
How much sediment does the Yellow River carry?
The Yellow River carries an average of 1.6 billion tons of sediment a year. If the sediment were built into a wall one meter wide and one meter high, it would be three times as long as the distance between the Earth and the moon and 27 times as long as the equator.
How many times did the Yellow River flood?
Between 608 BC and 1938 AD, the Yellow River changed course 26 times, and flooded over 1,500 times .
What river crosses grassy plains?
When the Yellow River navigates Inner Mongolia, it mostly crosses grassy plains.
Where does the Yellow River come from?
The Yellow River sources from the Bayan Har Mountains adjacent to the eastern edge of Qinghai’s Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and drains into the Bohai Sea, the innermost extension of the Yellow Sea, partially contributing to its golden color. Its left tributaries include the Fen River along with several other small rivers.The right tributaries are the Wei River and Tao River along with other smaller rivers.
How many people died in the Yellow River flood?
The flood between 1332 and 1933 took the lives of 7,000,000 people; the flood of 1887 killed between 900,000 and 2,000,000 people; the flood of 1931 was the most devastating, when 1,000,000 to 4,000,000 people have fallen victim to the river’s superpowers.
How do people manage the powers of their river?
Today people manage the powers of their river to work them in favour by building giant hydroelectric dams and major irrigation projects with smaller hydroelectric stations, as well establishing erosion control measures of the silt on the Loess Plateau.
Why was the Chengkuo canal important to the Qin Dynasty?
On the positive note, the Chengkuo canal was heavily relied on by the Qin Dynasty for irrigating the fields which lead to more food supply and thriving population. Although the canal was clogged up with sediment from the river’s waters 30 years later, the growing manpower was used to defeat the rivalling kingdoms.
What river flows past Lanzhou City?
The Yellow River flowing past the Lanzhou City.
What is the Yellow River?
The Yellow River is also known as the "cradle of Chinese civilization" or the "Mother River.". Usually a source of rich fertile soil and irrigation water, the Yellow River has transformed itself more than 1,500 times in recorded history into a raging torrent that has swept away entire villages. As a result, the river has several less-positive ...
Where is the Yellow River located?
The Yellow River springs up in the Bayan Har Mountain Range of west-central China's Qinghai Province and makes its way through nine provinces before it pours its silt out into the Yellow Sea off the coast of Shandong Province. It is the world's sixth-longest river, with a length of about 3,395 miles.
What river was the cause of the Taiping Rebellion?
The Yellow River in Modern China. A northward course-change in the river in the early 1850s helped fuel the Taiping Rebellion, one of China's deadliest peasant revolts. As populations grew ever larger along the treacherous river's banks, so too did the death tolls from flooding. In 1887, a major Yellow River flood killed an estimated 900,000 ...
How many people died in the Yellow River flood?
The 1931 Yellow River flood killed between 3.7 million and 4 million people, making it the deadliest flood in all of human history. In the aftermath, with war raging and the crops destroyed, survivors reportedly sold their children into prostitution and even resorted to cannibalism to survive.
What is the name of the river that the Chinese people use for agriculture?
Over the centuries, the Chinese people have used it not only for agriculture but also as a transportation route and even as a weapon. The Yellow River springs up in the Bayan Har Mountain Range ...
Which civilizations have grown up around rivers?
Many of the world's great civilizations have grown up around mighty rivers—Egypt on the Nile, the Mound-builder civilization on the Mississippi, the Indus Valley Civilization on the Indus River.
Why did the Qin kings use the Cheng-Kuo Canal?
The Qin kings relied on the Cheng-Kuo Canal, finished in 246 BCE, to provide irrigation water and increased crop yields , leading to a growing population and the manpower to defeat rival kingdoms. However, the Yellow River's silt-laden water quickly clogged the canal.
Where to see the Yellow River?
Two good places to witness this are at the Yellow River Viewing Point in Kaifeng and from the Yellow River Park outside Zhengzhou. To see the river in a more tempestuous mood, take a diversion to Hukou Falls, farther north on the Shaanxi–Shanxi border.
How long does the Yellow River flow?
The Yellow River flows for 5500km through nine provinces, making it one of the world’s mightiest waterways. However, the vast quantity of silt the river carries along its twisted length – 1.6 billion tonnes a year – has confused its course throughout history, and its unpredictable swings have always brought chaos. From 1194 to 1887, there were fifty major Yellow River floods, with three hundred thousand people killed in 1642 alone. Another disastrous event in 1933 was followed in 1937 by further tragedy – this time man-made – when Chiang Kai-shek used the river as a weapon against the advancing Japanese, breaching its dykes to cut the rail line. A delay of a few weeks was gained at the cost of hundreds of thousands of Chinese lives.
Why is the Yellow River called the "China's sorrow"?
However, the river’s popular nickname, “China’s Sorrow”, hints at the regular floods and changes of course that have repeatedly caused devastation – the waterway is often likened to a dragon, a reference not just to its sinuous course, but also to its uncontrollable nature, by turns benign and malevolent. On the flipside, it provides much-needed irrigation to areas otherwise arid and inhospitable, and has created some of China’s most distinctive landscapes, barrelling past colossal sand dunes before sliding along pancake-flat loess plains scarred with deep, winding crevasses.
What was the purpose of the Grand Canal?
But the largest scheme was the building of the 1800km Grand Canal in the sixth century, which connected the Yellow and the Yangzi rivers and was used to carry grain to the north. It was built using locks to control water level, an innovation that did not appear in the West for another four hundred years.
How much water does the Yellow River carry?
The Yellow River carries an average annual volume of about 13.4 cubic miles (56 cubic km) of water down to the sea, a rate of about 62,500 cubic feet (1,770 cubic metres) per second. The rate can be as much as 78,000 cubic feet (2,200 cubic metres) per second in high-volume years and as little as 22,000–28,000 cubic feet (600–800 cubic metres) per second in low-volume years. There also is considerable seasonal variation in its volume. The river has a low discharge rate—eight other Chinese rivers exceed that of the Yellow River—because its basin encompasses large areas of arid or semiarid land, where considerable quantities of water evaporate or are diverted for irrigation. More than half of the basin’s annual precipitation falls during the rainy season (July to October). The average annual precipitation for the entire basin is about 18.5 inches (470 mm), but its distribution is highly uneven. In some years the bulk of the river’s volume comes from its tributaries. In the upstream areas the main source is snowfall in the mountains, with the high-water level occurring in the spring. The highest water levels in the middle and lower parts of the river occur in July and August. Seasonal maximum flows can be considerable: 188,900 to 216,200 cubic feet (5,350 to 6,120 cubic metres) per second near Lanzhou, 350,000 cubic feet (10,000 cubic metres) near Longmen, and 1,270,000 cubic feet (36,000 cubic metres; recorded in 1943) in the lower parts of the river.
How did the Yellow River change course?
The lower Yellow River has changed course radically throughout its geologic history. The river’s decreased gradient and velocity on the plain cause its suspended load of silt to settle. As the riverbed builds up, the stream shifts course to occupy a lower level. In the past four millennia the river has entered the Yellow Sea at points as much as 500 miles (800 km) apart. From the 3rd millennium bce to 602 bce, when it occupied its northernmost course, it flowed near the present-day city of Tianjin and entered the nearby Bo Hai. From 602 bce to 70 ce both the river and its mouth shifted to a point on the Yellow Sea south of the Shandong Peninsula. From 70 to 1048 the Yellow River again shifted to the north, taking up a course near its present bed.
How long does the Yellow River freeze?
The Yellow River freezes over in parts of its middle section for several months each winter. On the North China Plain near Kaifeng there are 15 to 20 icebound days per year, but farther downstream there are none at all. Ice jams are broken up with the help of aerial bombardment or sometimes by artillery shelling.
Why is the Yellow River called the Yellow River?
The Yellow River Is called the Yellow River because of its soil, the soil underneath the water is the colour yellow. The ancient Chinese civilisation used the yellow river resources as a way of living.
Why did the Yellow River flood?
The yellow river flooded nearly every year because of high rain fall. Some of the Chinese people lived along the banks of the Yellow River, the people whom lived on the banks of the yellow continued to live there to harvest and collect millet and rice.
How many provinces does the Yellow River pass through?
The Yellow river streams through nine provinces and empties into the Bohai Sea. The nine provinces that the Yellow River streams through are called Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Shaanix, Shanxi, Henan and Shandong. The Yellow River is 3,395 miles long and it is also over 5,000 years old.
How many times has the Yellow River flooded?
As the worlds most heaviest river has flooded approximately 1500 times since the 2nd Century BCE, causing death and plenty of devastation. When the Yellow River did flood it meant that the Chinese people had to re build their homes and re plant their crops.
What resources did the ancient Chinese use?
Resources -. The ancient Chinese civilisation used the yellow river resources as a way of living. It produced many things as a result of having rich soil it was good for growing a grain called millet. The sheep and cattle were also kept on the bank of the Yellow River.
Overview
The Yellow River or Huang He is the second-longest river in China, after the Yangtze River, and the sixth-longest river system in the world at the estimated length of 5,464 km (3,395 mi). Originating in the Bayan Har Mountains in Qinghai province of Western China, it flows through nine provinces, and it empties into the Bohai Sea near the city of Dongying in Shandong province. The Yellow River basin has an east–west extent of about 1,900 kilometers (1,180 mi) and a north–south extent o…
Etymology
Early Chinese literature including the Yu Gong or Tribute of Yu dating to the Warring States period (475–221 BC) refers to the Yellow River as simply 河 (Old Chinese: *C.gˤaj, Modern Beijing Mandarin: /xɤ̌/ or in pinyin Hé), a character that has come to mean "river" in modern usage. An early attestation of the name 黃河 (Eastern Han Chinese: *ɣuaŋ-gɑi; Middle Chinese: Huang Ha ) in the Eastern Han treatise Kongcongzi 孔叢子 "The Many Kong Family Master's Anthology", attribut…
History
The Yellow River has been critical to the economic development of northern China. Flooding of the river has also caused much destruction, including multiple floods that have resulted in the deaths of over one million people. Among the deadliest were the 1332–33 flood during the Yuan dynasty, the 1887 flood during the Qing dynasty which killed anywhere from 900,000 to 2 million p…
Geography
According to the China Exploration and Research Society, the source of the Yellow River is at 34°29′31″N 96°20′25″E / 34.49194°N 96.34028°E in the Bayan Har Mountains near the eastern edge of the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. The source tributaries drain into Gyaring Lake and Ngoring Lake on the western edge of Golog Prefecture high in the Bayan Har Mountains of Qinghai. …
Characteristics
The Yellow River is notable for the large amount of silt it carries—1.6 billion tons annually at the point where it descends from the Loess Plateau. If it is running to the sea with sufficient volume, 1.4 billion tons are carried to the sea per year. One estimate gives 34 kilograms of silt per cubic meter as opposed to 10 for the Colorado and 1 for the Nile.
Hydroelectric power dams
Below is the list of hydroelectric power stations built on the Yellow River, arranged according to the first year of operation (in brackets):
• Sanmenxia Dam (1960; Sanmenxia, Henan)
• Sanshenggong Dam (1966)
• Qingtong Gorge hydroelectric power station (1968; Qingtongxia, Ningxia)
Crossings
The main bridges and ferries by the province names in the order of downstream to upstream are:
Shandong
• Dongying Yellow River Bridge
• Shengli Yellow River Bridge (Dongying)
Fauna
The Yellow River basin is rich in fish, being the home of more than 160 native species in 92 genera and 28 families, including 19 species found nowhere else in the world (endemic). However, due to habitat loss, pollution, introduced species and overfishing many of the natives have declined or disappeared entirely; several are recognized as threatened on China's Red List. Dams and their reser…
About The Yellow River
The Yellow River in Ancient China
- The recorded history of Chinese civilization begins on the banks of the Yellow River with the Xia Dynasty, which lasted from 2100 to 1600 BCE. According to Sima Qian's "Records of the Grand Historian" and the "Classic of Rites," a number of different tribes originally united into the Xia Kingdom in order to combat devastating floods on the river. When a series of breakwaters faile…
The Yellow River in The Medieval Period
- In 923 CE, China was embroiled in the chaotic Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. Among those kingdoms were the Later Liang and the Later Tangdynasties. As Tang armies approached the Liang capital, a general named Tuan Ning decided to breach the Yellow River dikes and flood 1,000 square miles of the Liang Kingdom in a desperate effort to stave off the Tang. Tuan's gam…
The Yellow River in Modern China
- A northward course-change in the river in the early 1850s helped fuel the Taiping Rebellion, one of China's deadliest peasant revolts. As populations grew ever larger along the treacherous river's banks, so too did the death tolls from flooding. In 1887, a major Yellow River flood killed an estimated 900,000 to 2 million people, making it the third...