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Huang He River Facts & Worksheets

Huang He River is the second longest in China after the Yangtze River. It begins in the Bayan Har Mountains in Western China's Qinghai province and runs through nine places.

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With an estimated length of 5,464 kilometers, the Yellow River, or Huang He, is China’s second-largest river after the Yangtze River and the world’s sixth-longest river system (3,395 mi). It begins in the Bayan Har Mountains in Western China’s Qinghai province and runs through nine places. It flows into the Bohai Sea near the Shandong city of Dongying.

See the fact file below for more information on the Huang He River, or alternatively, you can download our 26-page Huang He River worksheet pack to utilize within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

History

Dynamics

  • Created the Yellow River between 56 and 34 million years ago during the Eocene era, and its characteristic shape first emerged roughly 7,000 years ago. For a very long time, the river was essential to the development of northern China, and many people believe it to be one of the cradles of civilization.
  • Floods are caused by the vast volume of fine-grained loess brought by the river from the Loess Plateau and continually deposited along the channel’s bottom. Natural dams form slowly as a result of sedimentation.
  • The severity of the floods was sometimes exacerbated by the traditional Chinese response of building higher and higher levees along the banks. When floodwaters breached the levees, it could not return to the riverbed as it would after an anticipated flood because the riverbed was occasionally higher than the surrounding countryside.
  • Before the construction of modern dams in China, the Yellow River was prone to floods. The Yellow River flooded 1,593 times in the 2,540 years between 595 BCE and 1946 CE, altering its course 26 times considerably and nine times severely.

Ancient Times

  • In Chinese folklore, the giant Kua Fu emptied the Yellow and Wei rivers to quench his thirst while chasing the Sun—historical texts from the Spring and Autumn seasons.
  • Around 602 BCE, the river deserted these routes and migrated several hundred kilometers east. During the Warring States period, sabotage of dikes, canals, and purposeful flooding of neighboring states were standard military tactics.
  • Because the Yellow River valley was the principal gateway from the North China Plain to the Guanzhong area and the state of Qin, Qin massively defended the Hangu Pass, which witnessed multiple wars and served as a critical chokepoint safeguarding the Han capitals of Chang’an and Luoyang.
  • Flooding in CE 11 is linked with the demise of the brief-lived Xin dynasty, and another flood in CE 70 reverted the river north of Shandong to its current route.

The Medieval Times

  • The prominence of the Hangu Pass declined during the beginning of the third century when key fortifications and military posts were relocated upriver to Tongguan. In an attempt to safeguard his realm’s capital from the Later Tang, desperate Liang commander Duan Ning breached the dikes again in CE 923, flooding 1,000 square miles (2,600 km2).
  • The Song struggled for five years, trying vainly to rebuild the previous system, using approximately 35,000 workers, 100,000 conscripts, and 220,000 tons of wood and bamboo. It was finally abandoned in 1041. In 1048, the slower river broke near Shanghai, sending the central outflow north into Tianjin.
  • To halt the Jin army’s advance in 1128, Song soldiers broke through the Yellow River’s southern dikes. The Yellow was able to seize tributaries of the Huai River as a result of the significant river avulsion. The Huai’s mouth had been closed off by 1194.
  • Conventional flood control methods included overflow basins, drainage canals, polders, levees, and revetments to absorb the energy of the water. Treaties on traditional river branches used for flood control enhanced the water’s force, which boosted the water’s capacity to discharge silt.

Recent Times

  • Floods between 1851 and 1855 sparked the Nien and Taiping Rebellions, and the Yellow River shifted northward. The 1887 flood is the second-worst natural disaster in history, with estimates of its death toll ranging from 900,000 to 2 million (excluding famines and epidemics). With the flood of 1897, the Yellow River more or less took on its current course.
  • Between 500,000 and 900,000 Chinese people died in the 1938 flood that covered an area of 54,000 km2 (20,800 sq mi) and an undetermined number of Japanese soldiers. Due to the flood, the Japanese Army could not capture Zhengzhou, located on the Yellow River’s southern bank. Nonetheless, it did not prevent them from seizing Wuhan, the provisional capital of China, and crossing the Yangtze River.

Middle Reaches

  • The Yellow River undergoes a significant bending that creates the Ordos Loop, starting at Zhongning Country in Ningxia and concluding with a sharp turn to the east at its confluence with the river’s central portions stretching from Hekou in Togtoh County, Inner Mongolia, to Zhengzhou, Henan.
  • The Loess Plateau, which experiences significant erosion, is traversed by the Yellow River’s middle stream. The Yellow River is the most sediment-rich in the world due to the massive mud and sand thrown into it.
  • This region is the second most ideal for constructing hydroelectric power plants because of the abundance of hydrodynamic resources. On the boundary of Shanxi and Shaanxi, in the lowest portion of this valley, is the renowned Hukou Waterfall.

Lower Reaches

  • The river is restricted to a levee-lined path in the lower stages from Zhengzhou, Henan, to its mouth, a distance of 768 km (488 mi), as it runs to the northeast over the North China Plain before emptying into the Bohai Sea.
  • For instance, the south dike of the Yellow River separates the Huai River Basin from the Yellow River Basin. The lower sections have a total elevation decrease of 93.6 m (307 ft), with an average slope of 0.012%.
  • The middle reaches’ silts create sediments, raising the river bed. The riverbed has been extended several meters above the surrounding terrain due to excessive silt deposition. The Yellow River is 10 meters (33 feet) above the earth in Kaifeng, Henan.

Fauna 

Fish

  • More than 160 native species in 92 genera and 28 families, including 19 endemic species, can be found in the Yellow River basin. However, due to habitat loss, pollution, introduced species, overfishing, and other factors, many native species have declined or vanished; several are listed as threatened on China’s Red List.
  • In the Yellow River watershed, they identified only 80 native fish in 63 genera and 18 families in the 2000s. When ichthyologist Li Sizhong first published his initial assessment of the fish fauna of the area in the 1960s, it was found that there was only one introduced fish species. By the 2000s, however, there were 26 introduced fish species.
  • Since 2018, the Yellow River watershed has been subject to an annual fishing prohibition from April 1 to June 30. Starting on April 1, 2022, and lasting through the end of 2025, a complete ban on fishing for native fish will be enacted in the higher sections of the Yellow River, including Qinghai, Sichuan provinces, and Gansu. The yearly prohibition is extended from April 1 to July 31 for the remainder of the basin.

Aquaculture

  • Compared to central and southern Chinese rivers like the Yangtze or the Pearl River, the Yellow River is often less suited for aquaculture. Nonetheless, several regions around the Yellow River also pursue aquaculture. The riverfront plan of Xingyang City, upstream from Zhengzhou, is a significant aquaculture region. In 1986, the construction of fish ponds began in Wangcun Town, a riverfront neighborhood in Xingyang. The town of Wangcun is now the largest aquaculture hub in North China since its pond system has expanded to a total area of 15,000 mu (10 km).
  • The Yellow River and other Chinese rivers are home to the enormous, totally aquatic Chinese giant salamander, a species whose numbers have plummeted primarily due to persecution for food and traditional medicine. It is widely cultivated across China, and genetic investigations have shown that most captive stock is of Yellow River ancestry. The Yellow River variety of the Chinese giant salamander has expanded to other regions of China due to frequent releases into the wild, creating a challenge for the broad types.

Pollution

  • In a report titled “China’s Mother River: the Yellow River,” Tania Branigan of The Guardian asserted that one-third of China’s Yellow River is now completely unusable for agricultural or industrial purposes as a result of severe pollution brought on by factory discharges and sewage from rapidly growing cities.
  • According to the research, 4.29 billion tons of garbage and sewage were released into the system last year. 70% of the flow into the river came from industry and manufacturing, with households contributing 23% and a little over 6% from other sources.

In Culture

  • The Yellow River was once thought to pour out of Heaven as a continuation of the Milky Way. According to a Chinese tale, Zhang Qian was hired to locate the Yellow River’s source.
  • The Yellow River gives the provinces of Hebei and Henan their names. Even though the border between them historically has never been solid and the Zhang River, not the Yellow River, presently separates Hebei and Henan, their names both mean, respectively, “North of the River.”

River of Disaster

  • Although the Yellow River played a vital role in the rise of Chinese civilization on the North China Plain, floods and deliberate river rerouting also led to several significant tragedies for the local populace, earning it the nickname “River catastrophes.”
  • The history of Chinese civilization’s disastrous growth is called “tragedy carried by the River.” Since ancient times, managing the Yellow River has caused several Chinese rulers a great deal of political turmoil.

When The Yellow River Flows Clear

  • The Chinese proverb “when the Yellow River runs clean” is equivalent to the English phrase “when pigs fly” and alludes to an event that will never occur. The Yellow River is also often poetically referred to as the “Muddy Flow.”
  • “The Yellow River running clean” and other strange natural phenomena like the qilin (an African giraffe sent to China by a Bengal mission aboard Zheng He ships in 1414) and zouyu (not definitively identified) were seen as lucky omens during the reign of the Yongle Emperor.

Huang He River Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about Huang He River across 26 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use Huang He River worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about the Yellow River, which is known as the Huang He in China. It is the mother river for all Chinese people. Huang He River is the second longest in China after the Yangtze River. It is the cradle of Chinese civilization, which prospered in the middle and lower basin of the Yellow River.

Complete List of Included Worksheets

  • Huang He River Facts
  • The Ancient Yellow River
  • Cities along the River
  • Life in Huang He
  • Why Yellow River?
  • The River of Sorrow
  • Tributaries of the Yellow River
  • Look for the Word
  • Power Dams
  • China Flood Analysis
  • Clean Up Drives

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Yellow River?

With an estimated length of 5,464 kilometers, the Yellow River, or Huang He, is China’s second-largest river after the Yangtze River and the world’s sixth-longest river system (3,395 mi). It begins in the Bayan Har Mountains in Western China’s Qinghai province and runs through nine places. It flows into the Bohai Sea near the Shandong city of Dongying.

Where does the middle stream of the Yellow River pass through?

The Loess Plateau, which experiences significant erosion, is traversed by the Yellow River’s middle stream. The Yellow River is the most sediment-rich in the world due to the massive mud and sand thrown into it.

What has been implemented in the Yellow River since 2018?

Since 2018, the Yellow River watershed has been subject to an annual fishing prohibition from April 1 to June 30. Starting on April 1, 2022, and lasting through the end of 2025, a complete ban on fishing for native fish will be enacted in the higher sections of the Yellow River, including Qinghai, Sichuan provinces, and Gansu. The yearly prohibition is extended from April 1 to July 31 for the remainder of the basin.

Why is the Yellow River unusable now for agricultural or industrial purposes?

In a report titled “China’s Mother River: the Yellow River,” Tania Branigan of The Guardian it is asserted that one-third of China’s Yellow River is now completely unusable for agricultural or industrial purposes as a result of severe pollution brought on by factory discharges and sewage from rapidly growing cities.

Why is the Yellow River called the “River Catastrophes”?

Although the Yellow River played a vital role in the rise of Chinese civilization on the North China Plain, floods and deliberate river rerouting also led to several significant tragedies for the local populace, earning it the nickname “River catastrophes.“

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Use With Any Curriculum

These worksheets have been specifically designed for use with any international curriculum. You can use these worksheets as-is, or edit them using Google Slides to make them more specific to your own student ability levels and curriculum standards.

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