The Yellow River is China's second largest river, but it may be her most famous. It is one of the four ancient cradles of civilization, along with theTigris and Euphrates, the Nile, and the Indus Rivers. This picture was taken from the Luoyang Yellow River Bridge northeast of Luoyang, looking west, back up the river. The little dots in the left central part of the picture was a flock of water birds. They were too far away to see what kind they were, but there were alot of them swimming up the river.

Here are Deanna and her Mom on the Luoyang Yellow River Bridge. Our driver dropped us off to let us have a look at the river and take some pictures. Then he picked us up again on his way back across the bridge.

Farther west up the Yellow River you come to the Xiao Lang Di Dam and Reservior. You can see the Chinese characters in white on the dam itself. This project was a major undertaking and was completed only a few years ago.

This is the view of the dam from the other side of the river, where you can see the power generators and the flood gates. This dam produces electricity, controls flooding (which has been a problem throughout the centuries along this river), and in time of drought, regulates the water supply for irrigation.

You can see the earth and stone dam over Lee's shoulder in this picture, and the flood gates and generators behind Deanna. The Yellow River is so named because of the loess silt that it carries. Another purpose of this dam is to control the silting up of the river. Periodically, they force water through the floodgates under high pressure to clear out silt. We saw pictures of this process and it was quite spectacular.

To build an access road to the dam and reservior, engineers cut through cliffs along the river. This cut clearly reveals the layers of sediment that the Yellow River has been laying down for thousands of years. The river would flood and provide the land with fertile soil, making it China's Mother River. But the floods also took countless human lives, giving the Yellow river its other name - China's Sorrow.

A lot of wheat is grown on the land around the Yellow River, and we happened to be there during harvest time. We were fascinated by the large areas of roads and sidewalks covered with drying wheat.

Copyright 2004, Dr. Lee Williams

Last Modified: 22 November 2004

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