Yellow River

The historic crossing where ancient lords gathered, home to the imperial tomb of Emperor Guangwu of Han.

The legendary rock pillar standing firm amid surging rapids, symbol of enduring strength since Yu the Great.

The youngest landmass in China created by river sediments, a pristine international wetland biosphere.

The surging eastern cataract of Hukou Waterfall thundering down the Dragon Trough in Shanxi.

One of the Four Great Towers of China overlooking the Yellow River, immortalized in Wang Zhihuan's Tang dynasty poem.

Spanning the Yellow River at an old Silk Road ferry crossing, Lanzhou's Zhongshan Bridge was the river's first truly modern large iron bridge.

Beside the roaring torrents of Hukou in the Jin-Shaanxi Grand Canyon, an old temple to the Yellow River's water god doubles as a prime falls viewpoint.

The bright sun slants along the mountains and sinks; the Yellow River surges into the eastern sea. If you desire to see a thousand leagues afar, ascend yet another story higher.

Wrote of Stork Tower in Yongji in “On Ascending Stork Tower”. High Tang poet known from only six surviving poems, including 'On the Stork Tower' and a 'Liangzhou Song', who held minor county posts and died in office in 742

Part of Yellow River's history: Red Turban Rebellions. Last Yuan emperor to rule from Dadu, whose long reign saw Toghto's reforms and the Red Turban risings and ended with his flight north before the Ming army in 1368

Part of Yellow River's history: Red Turban Rebellions. Red Turban leader who launched the Yingzhou rising and northern campaigns

Part of Yellow River's history: Great Yu Taming the Flood. Legendary founder of the Xia, son of Gun, who in the Records of the Grand Historian tamed the great flood and received the throne from Shun

Part of Yellow River's history: Great Yu Taming the Flood. Legendary father of Yu the Great who, in the Shiji account, failed for nine years to tame the flood for Yao and was punished by Shun at Mount Yushan

Great Yu Taming the Flood

Yu replaced blocking with channeling, directing floodwaters to the sea and building the authority from which Xia rule emerged.

The Tribute of Yu records Yu ordering rivers and mountains; the Yellow River is the geographic anchor, without claiming that this passage proves excavation at Hukou or Mengmen.

In 246 BCE, Qin began the Jing River irrigation canal proposed by the Han engineer Zheng Guo; completed over more than a decade, it irrigated extensive saline land in Guanzhong.

Red Turban Rebellions

Red Turban forces rose amid flood-control labor and famine, seized cities across several regions, and fractured Yuan authority.

In 1351, Jia Lu directed workers and troops in dredging, closing breaches, and building levees, returning the Yellow River to its former course and reopening navigation within the year.

In 1578, during his third tenure directing river works, Pan Jixun systematically implemented embankments that constrained flow to scour sediment and coordinated the Yellow, Huai, and Grand Canal systems.

In 1909, Lanzhou's Yellow River Iron Bridge was completed and opened, becoming an important modern steel bridge linking the two banks.

In the Tang period, the poem Climbing Stork Tower became associated with the Yellow River pavilion and was later conventionally attributed to Wang Zhihuan.