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The
Huang He
Facts
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Continent
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Asia
|
|
Countries
it flows through
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China
|
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Length
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5464
kilometres
|
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Number
of tributaries
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Over
5
|
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Source
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Qinghai
Province, western China
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Mouth
|
Gulf
of Bohai
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Location
Map reproduced from the Oxford Practical Atlas with permission
from Oxford University Press.
The
Huang He is the second longest river in China. It begins on a high plateau
in Qinghai Province in the western part of China. It flows across China
until it enters the sea at the Gulf of Bohai. But the mouth
of the Huang He has changed its location over the centuries. At different
times the mouths have been as much as 800 kilometres apart. The Huang
He is the world's muddiest river. Much of the sediment in the river
is carried in solution
and suspension.
The
Huang He and flooding
More
than 100 million people live along the banks of the Huang He. In some
places the water level of the river is higher than the land. People
have built dykes (mounds of earth) to try and stop the river from flooding.
The river is often called "China's sorrow" because millions
of people have been killed by flooding. In September 1887 the Huang
He river burst its banks and destroyed 1500 towns and villages. One
million people died. The flood was caused by weeks of heavy rain.
The
Huang He and agriculture
Cereal
crops like wheat, millet and rice are grown along the banks of the Huang
He because the soils of the floodplain are so rich.
The
Huang He and the Yangtze
In
500BC the Chinese people decided to build a canal
to link the Huang He and Yangtze rivers together. It was called the
Grand Canal. This was to make transport around the large country of
China much easier as people used boats then. Work continued on the canal
for hundreds of years and it is still used today.
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