Yellow River, also Huanghe River, known in Chinese literature simply as the He (“River”)—turns eastward (immediately after its confluence with the Wei River) just west of the junction of the borders of Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Henan. From there it soon enters the Sanmen Gorge, flowing east-northeast for some 80 miles (130 km) between Shanxi and Henan before issuing onto the plain and flowing east directly across northern Henan. It is remarkable that from the confluence with the Wei to the sea, a distance of about 600 miles (1,000 km), the Huang He receives only two comparatively small tributaries: the right-bank Luo River, on which Luoyang stands, and the left-bank Qin River.

The Huang He is subject to extreme changes in summer and winter flow. In time of maximum flow (summer) the river carries an enormous load of silt, gathered mainly in its course through the Loess Plateau of Shaanxi and Shanxi provinces. There is a Chinese saying that “if you fall into the Huang He, you never get clean again.” Prior to the damming of the river at Sanmen Gorge, the river was fast flowing through the gorge, and it was able to carry its load of silt until it issued onto the plain; at that point, its pace was checked, it could no longer carry the silt, and flooding occurred.

Throughout historical times, this menace was met by building levees to contain the waters. Generally, these dikes were built 5 to 8 miles (8 to 13 km) apart, parallel to the river’s banks, to give the river plenty of room to flow in time of spate (flooding), but instead the load of silt slowly spread within the confines of the dikes, building up the riverbed through the centuries, until today it lies above the surrounding countryside. Dikes have been built higher and higher, and when they failed to hold—as has happened in some part of the province almost every year—the river descended onto the plain, causing disastrous floods, the waters of which could not return to the high streambed when the river’s flow slackened. The result was waterlogging of the soil, crop destruction, and famine.

Because the watershed between the Huang and Huai rivers is almost imperceptible, the Huang He has radically changed its course several times in the last three millennia, flowing to the sea first south, then north of the Shandong Peninsula. The diversion has always been in northern Henan between Zhengzhou and Kaifeng. In 1938, in an attempt to arrest the advance of the invading Japanese Army, the Huang He was deliberately diverted to the south by blowing up the dikes near Zhengzhou and flooding 21,000 square miles (54,000 square km) of land, at an estimated cost of 900,000 lives. The river was restored to its former northern course in 1947.

Under the People’s Republic, work along the river has included continued strengthening of the dikes and construction of the 30-mile- (50-km-) long People’s Victory Canal, which diverts Huang He water to the Wei River (of northeastern Henan). A dam near the city of Sanmenxia near the Shanxi border was begun in 1956 as part of an extensive flood-control and hydroelectric project. After completion of the dam in the 1970s, silt accumulation cut its generating capacity to a fraction of planned output, hampering much of the province’s industrial development; however, the dam did help control the flood stages of the river.

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