Yellow River (Huang He)

The Yellow River (also called the Huang He) is the second longest river in the People’s Republic of China and is the sixth longest in the world being about 3,010 miles (4,845 km) in length. In china it is known by both positive and negative nicknames. The positive one being “the cradle of China” because it is the birthplace of northern Chinese civilization and the negative one being “China’s sorrow” because of the flooding that occurs that causes a large amount of damage.

The Yellow River is called "the cradle of Chinese civilization", as its basin is the birthplace of ancient Chinese civilizations and was the most prosperous region in early Chinese history. But frequent devastating flooding when the silt washed down from the upper reaches elevated the river bed in its lower course higher and higher, sometimes above the level of the surrounding fields, has also earned it the unenviable names "China's Sorrow" and "Scourge of the Sons of Han."

According to China Exploration and Research Society, the source of the Yellow River is at 34 29 31.1N, 96 20 24.6E near the eastern edge of Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. The source tribituaries drain into Gyaring Lake and Ngoring Lake on the western edge of Golog Prefecture high in the Bayan Har Mountains in Qinghai Province in the far west of China. In the Zoige Basin along the boundary with Gansu Province, the Yellow River loops northwest and then northeast before turning south, creating the "Ordos Loop", and then flows generally eastward across northern China to the Gulf of Bohai, draining a basin of 752,443 square kilometres (290,520 sq mi) which nourishes 140 million people with drinking water and irrigation.

The river is commonly divided into three stages. These are roughly the northeast of the Tibetan Plateau, the Ordos Loop and the North China Plain. However, different scholars have different opinions on how the three stages are divided.This article adopts the division used by the Yellow River Conservancy Commission