10 Interesting Facts about the Yellow River

China’s Huang He (Yellow River) changes in the delta near the present river mouth at five-year intervals from 1989 to 2009. Photo by: Yellow River Delta: NASA derivative work- Wikimedia.

10 Interesting Facts about the Yellow River

The Yellow River is brimming with shocking facts. China’s “Mother River” provided a home for early civilization before regularly destroying it with deadly floods and course changes. The Yellow River has been fully harnessed for hydroelectricity, reservoirs, irrigation, and other purposes as a result of China’s recent infrastructure boom, transforming the “monster” into a natural resource.

1. Brief history about Yellow River

The Yellow River gets its name from the wind-blown silt and sediment (geographers call it loess) it picks up in its upper and middle reaches, where the soil is easily eroded and gives the river its yellow hue.

Muddy flow is one of its alternate names! Due to the river carrying so much silt, it is prone to flooding when this fine material forms natural dams. The Yellow River has flooded so frequently that it has earned the nickname “China’s sorrow.”

In 1931, the world experienced its worst flood in recorded history. The river inundated 33,976 square miles (88,000 square kilometers), killing one million people. Eighty million people were evicted from their homes.

2. Big torrent to muddy trickle on the fifth longest river

The Yellow River’s First Bay. The Yellow River is China’s second longest river after the Yangtze, and the world’s sixth longest, but it ranks less than 100th in terms of discharge.

After the Yangtze and Yenisei rivers, it is Asia’s third longest river. It rules over dry northern China. Unlike other rivers, its flow appears to decrease as it travels. 

It is 5 464 km in length (3,398 miles). The Bayankala Mountains in Qinghai Province, western central China, is the source. Mouth: Shandong Province’s Bo Sea, a gulf on the East China Sea.

3. Chinese civilization’s nest

The Yellow River is known as “the Mother River of China” and “the Cradle of Chinese Civilization” in China. According to historical sources, the lower Yellow River basin was the birthplace of Chinese civilization and the most thriving area in early Chinese history.

Anthropological Museum of Zhoukoudian. Prehistoric Chinese were found at Zhoukoudian, south of Beijing, and around Sanmenxia on the Yellow River, midway between Xi’an and Zhengzhou.

The earliest Chinese empires, the Xia (2100–1600 BC, capital Luoyang) and Shang (1600–1046 BC, capital Anyang), were centered around Zhengzhou.

Xi’an, on the Yellow River’s Wei tributary, was a major Chinese headquarters from the Qin Dynasty (221–206 BC) to the Tang Dynasty (618–907). For nearly 3,000 years, the Yellow River Basin was the epicenter of Chinese politics, economy, culture, and development.

4. The world’s muddiest major river 

Yellow River. Photo by: Fading- Wikimedia.

The Yellow River originally comes from the ochre-yellow color of the muddy water in the river’s lower reaches.

When the river’s middle reaches flow through China’s Loess Plateau region, it transports 1.6 billion tons of fine sediment (loess) each year.

It transports more sediment per cubic meter than any other major river in the world and deposits the majority of it before reaching the delta.

5. Hukou waterfall, the world’s largest- “Yellow” Waterfall

Hukou Waterfall of Yellow River, China. Photo by: Leruswing- Wikimedia.

Hukou Waterfall is the world’s most solubilized major waterfall. Hukou Waterfall, located in the Yellow River’s middle reaches, is the world’s largest “yellow” waterfall and the second largest waterfall in China after Huangguoshu Waterfall.

The waterfall is called Hukou (/hoo-co/ ‘Kettle Mouth’) because the riverbed there has eroded into a spout resembling a massive teapot, from which rushing “yellow” water streams.

The mighty Yellow River suddenly narrows as it flows through the gorge at Hukou, turning the water into rapids and ending in thundering chocolaty billows. Based on the weather, the majestic waterfall is 15 meters (50 feet) high and 30 to 50 meters (100–160 feet) wide.

Annually, a large number of visitors visit the majestic Hukou Waterfall. Find out more about Hukou Waterfall.

6. Ships sail on a raised river — 10m above the ground!

Normally, rivers are the lowest point in the region; not so with the Yellow River!

The riverbed in most of its lower reaches is up to 10 meters (33 feet) above the surrounding cities and farmlands due to sediment supply and incremental spillways constructed to contain the elevated flow.

As a result, it is also known as “the Hanging River” or “Above Ground River.”

The Yellow River is the only river in which ships sail above!

7. Flooding has killed millions of people in “China’s Sorrow”

Hukou waterfall on the Huang he (Yellow river) in Shanxi/Shaanxi, China. Photo by: Emdx- Wikimedia.

The river overflows its banks and sometimes leaves them far behind due to the constant rise of the riverbed caused by accumulated silt (see below). Flooding and river course changes were common in the neighboring regions.

The Yellow River has been dubbed “China’s Sorrow” for a long time. It was the world’s most dangerous and damaging river until damming and massive abstraction reduced it to a carefully managed trickle.

It flooded 1,593 times between 602 B.C. and 1946, killing thousands through drowning, disease, starvation, and loss of livelihood.

The Yellow River Flood of 1931 was the most devastating natural disaster in recorded history, killing 1–4 million people (apart from famines and plagues).

8. Over 20 significant moves — from Tianjin to Shanghai

Hukou waterfalls on Huanghe River 壶口瀑布. Photo by: Sylvannus- Wikimedia.

The Yellow River once flowed into the Bo Sea near Tianjin and Beijing, about 200 kilometers north of where it now flows.

However, it has drained into a tributary of the Yangtze in the last 1,000 years (and as recently as 1947), flowing out at Shanghai — 600 kilometers south of its current delta.

It has shifted its path significantly roughly once every 100 years, causing massive destruction.

9. Annually reduced to nothing since 1972

Due to decreased rainfall in the Yellow River catchment, enhanced fertigation requirements, and other factors, the lower reaches of the Yellow River dried up entirely for the first time in 1972, and have since dried up – nearly each year.

When it dries up, it affects over 140 million people and 74,000 km2 (46,000 mi2) of farmland. The long drought lasted 136 days in 1996 and 226 days in 1997.

10. Billions spent on flood control

The surrounding regions are protected from the increasing river by enhancing and constructing longer river banks (and excavating).

Excess water is captured when large-scale water preservation plans, such as Sanmenxia Reservoir and Xiaolangdi Multipurpose Dam, are built to regulate flow and sediment deposition downstream.

Planting trees in the watershed reduces erosion and sedimentation, as well as runoff levels.

Damming Yellow River tributaries also declines the river’s movement.