The Huang He

Facts

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.