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5,464 km Total LengthDrainage Basin: 752,443 km²

Yellow River (Huang He)

Ancient Appellations: He (Ancient Chinese) • Mother River of China • Muddy Flow

The cradle of Chinese civilization, famous for its massive loess sediment load, iconic Ordos Loop, and catastrophic historical course shifts.

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Source: Bayan Har Mountains, Qinghai ProvinceMouth: Bohai Sea Wikidata: Q7355 ↗

Hydrological Influence & Ancient Statecraft

Carrying the highest sediment concentration of any major river on Earth as it carves through the fertile Loess Plateau, the Yellow River nourished China earliest imperial capitals at Anyang, Luoyang, and Chang an. Its continuous silt deposition elevated the riverbed above surrounding plains, creating suspended rivers that breached dykes in catastrophic floods, earning it both reverence as China Mother River and fear as China Sorrow.

Agricultural Surplus & Flood Pulse Ecology

Rich yellow loess soils enabled Neolithic millet and winter wheat cultivation, hydraulic flood control engineering, and the earliest imperial canal networks.

Hydrological Anatomy

  • ✓Enormous Ordos Loop sweeping north into Inner Mongolia before plunging south through the Shaanxi-Shanxi gorge
  • ✓Hukou Waterfall, the world largest yellow waterfall where the river narrows into a roaring canyon
  • ✓Suspended river section in Henan and Shandong perched up to 10 meters above the North China plain
  • ✓Dense 342-point GIS centerline capturing every loop and bend across the Chinese subcontinent

About the Yellow River

The Yellow River, also known as Huang he, is the second-longest river in China and the sixth-longest in the world, with an estimated length of 5,464 km (3,395 mi) and a drainage basin of 795,000 km2 (307,000 sq mi). Beginning in the Bayan Har Mountains, the river flows generally eastwards before entering the 1,500 km (930 mi) long Ordos Loop, which runs northeast at Gansu through the Ordos Plateau and turns east in Inner Mongolia. The river then turns sharply southwards to form the border between Shanxi and Shaanxi, turns eastwards at its confluence with the Wei River, and flows across the North China Plain before emptying into the Bohai Sea. The river is named for the yellow color of its water, which comes from the large amount of sediment discharged into the water as the river flows through the Loess Plateau.

The Yellow River basin was the birthplace of ancient Chinese civilization. According to traditional Chinese historiography, the Xia dynasty originated on its banks around 2100 BC; Sima Qian's Shiji (c. 91 BC) record that the Xia were founded after the tribes around the Yellow River united to combat the frequent floods in the area.

Encyclopedic summary adapted from Wikipedia: Yellow River (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Yellow River in Depth

Geography

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).

According to the China Exploration and Research Society, the source of the Yellow River is at 34°29′31″N 96°20′25″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.

History

The river has long been critical to the development of northern China, and is regarded by scholars as a cradle of civilization. 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 1344 Yellow River Flood, during the Yuan dynasty, the 1887 flood during the Qing dynasty which killed anywhere from 900,000 to 2 million people, and a Republic of China era 1931 flood (part of a massive number of floods that year that killed 1–4 million people).

The cause of the floods is the large amount of fine-grained loess carried by the river from the Loess Plateau, which is continuously deposited along the bottom of its channel. The sedimentation causes natural dams to slowly accumulate.

Tourism

The Yellow River has several major tourist attractions such as the Kanbula UNESCO Global Geopark in Qinghai, the Bingling Grottoes at Liujiaxia Dam and the Yellow River Stone Forest in Gansu, and the Hukou Waterfall in Shanxi.

The river was first travelled in its entirety by Chinese rafting teams in 1986. There have been successful attempts to walk and cycle the entire length of the Yellow River, although there some sections of the upper reaches the river where the bank is inaccessible.

Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Yellow River (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Yellow River: Key Facts

Key facts about Yellow River
Average discharge2,571 m³/s
Drainage systemYellow River Basin
TributariesDuo Qu, Bai River, Black River (in Sichuan), Qushian River, Daxia River, Huangshui River, Datong River, Tao River

Facts from Wikidata Q7355 (CC0).

Dams of the Yellow River

2 dams of the Yellow River, ordered by structural height, with their reservoirs and generating capacity.

Dams of the Yellow River
DamHeightCapacityCompleted
Xiaolangdi Dam154 m1,800 MW2001
Sanmenxia Dam106 m400 MW1960
Xiaolangdi Dam
Image via Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on the file page).

Xiaolangdi Dam

Rock-fill dam · Henan, China

Xiaolangdi Dam is a rock-fill dam on the Yellow River in Henan, China, standing 154 m (505 ft) high and completed in 2001. It carries an installed hydroelectric capacity of 1,800 MW. The structure impounds Xiaolangdi Reservoir.

The Xiaolangdi Dam (Chinese: 小浪底; pinyin: Xiǎolàngdǐ) is a dam in Jiyuan, Henan Province, China, and impounds the Yellow River. The facility is located about 20 km to the northwest of Luoyang. It has a total installed capacity of 1,836 MW and generates up to 5.1 TWh annually with the help of six 306 MW turbines. The dam stands 154 m (505 ft) tall and 1,317 m (4,321 ft) wide. It cost US$3.5 billion to construct.

Adapted from Wikipedia: Xiaolangdi Dam (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Dam type
Rock-fill
Structural height
154 m (505 ft)
Installed capacity
1,800 MW
Impounded river
Yellow River
Reservoir
Xiaolangdi Reservoir
Location
Henan, China
Year completed
2001
Height rank
#30 of 115 indexed
Output rank
#38 of 102 indexed
Coordinates
34.9227°, 112.3787°

Notable: Primary flood and sediment regulation project on the Yellow River; conducts annual high-velocity silt flushing.

Among the 115 dams indexed in YearMaps, Xiaolangdi Dam ranks #30 by structural height, behind Jinping-I Dam (305 m). By installed generating capacity it ranks #38, behind Three Gorges Dam (22,500 MW).

Nearest cities: Luoyang (28 km), Jincheng (76 km), Jiaozuo (85 km).

View on the live map

Sanmenxia Dam
Image via Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on the file page).

Sanmenxia Dam

Concrete Gravity dam · Henan / Shanxi, China

Sanmenxia Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Yellow River in Henan / Shanxi, China, standing 106 m (348 ft) high and completed in 1960. It carries an installed hydroelectric capacity of 400 MW. The structure impounds Sanmenxia Reservoir.

The Sanmenxia Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the middle-reaches of the Yellow River near Sanmenxia Gorge on the border between Shanxi province and Henan Province, China. The dam is multi-purpose and was constructed for flood and ice control along with irrigation, hydroelectric power generation and navigation. Construction began in 1957 and was completed in 1960. It is the first major water control project on the Yellow River and was viewed as a major achievement of the new People's Republic of China. Subsequently, its image was printed on the country's bank notes. However, due to sediment accumulation in the reservoir, the dam later had to be re-engineered and renovated. The effects from sediment, which include flooding upstream, have placed the dam at the center of controversy and criticism-related arrests by the Chinese government.

Adapted from Wikipedia: Sanmenxia Dam (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Dam type
Concrete Gravity
Structural height
106 m (348 ft)
Installed capacity
400 MW
Impounded river
Yellow River
Reservoir
Sanmenxia Reservoir
Location
Henan / Shanxi, China
Year completed
1960
Height rank
#47 of 115 indexed
Output rank
#66 of 102 indexed
Coordinates
34.8317°, 111.3486°

Notable: The first major dam erected on the Yellow River, known as the 'First Dam of the Yellow River'.

Among the 115 dams indexed in YearMaps, Sanmenxia Dam ranks #47 by structural height, behind Jinping-I Dam (305 m). By installed generating capacity it ranks #66, behind Three Gorges Dam (22,500 MW).

Nearest cities: Houma (89 km), Luoyang (104 km), Hancheng (110 km).

View on the live map

More about Sanmenxia Dam

History

In response to centuries of flooding on the Yellow River, engineers initially proposed the Sanmenxia Dam in early 1935. In 1954, the Yellow River Planning Board was established and oversaw a survey of the river with help from Soviet engineers. The Soviet engineers recommended a dam at the Sanmenxia site. Original plans for the dam called for a maximum reservoir level 360 m (1,181 ft) above sea level (ASL). This would have required the relocation of 870,000 people and the flooding of 3,500 km2 (1,351 sq mi). The design was revised to a maximum level of 340 m (1,115 ft) ASL which required the relocation of 400,000 people and flooded much less area. In 1955 the Comprehensive River Basin Planning Report officially proposed the project.

Design

The dam is a 106 m (348 ft) tall and 713 m (2,339 ft) long concrete gravity type. It sits at the head of a 688,400 km2 (265,793 sq mi) catchment area and withholds a reservoir with a 16,200,000,000 m3 (13,133,554 acre⋅ft) capacity. The reservoir covers a surface area of 2,350 km2 (907 sq mi) and stretches 246 km (153 mi) upstream to Longmen. The dam supports a power station that can hold up to eight turbines but currently only seven are installed. Five 50 MW and 75 MW Francis turbine-generators make up the arrangement for a total installed capacity of 400 MW.

Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Sanmenxia Dam (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Yellow River: Quick Answers

Which countries does the Yellow River flow through?
The mapped course of the Yellow River lies entirely in China.
Where does the Yellow River begin and end?
Source: Bayan Har Mountains, Qinghai Province. Mouth: Bohai Sea (Dongying, Shandong).
How long is the Yellow River?
About 5,464 km (3,395 miles), draining a basin of about 752,443 km².
What is the tallest dam on the Yellow River?
Xiaolangdi Dam is the tallest dam recorded on the Yellow River, at 154 m (505 ft), completed in 2001.
Which civilizations grew up along the Yellow River?
Among them: Erlitou Culture, Shang Dynasty, Zhou Dynasty and Qin & Han Dynasties.

Countries Along the River

The main stream from source to mouth, then any country only a tributary or delta branch reaches.

  1. 1China

Historic Cities on the Banks

LuoyangKaifengZhengzhouJinanLanzhouYinchuanBaotou

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