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HWANG HO [HoANG Ho]
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HWANG HO [HoANG Ho] , the second largest See also:river in See also:China. It is known to foreigners as the Yellow river—a name which is a literal See also:translation of the See also:Chinese. It rises among the Kuenlun mountains in central See also:Asia, its See also:head-See also:waters being in See also:close proximity to those of the Yangtsze-Kiang. It has a See also:total length of about 2400 M. and drains an See also:area of approximately 400,000 sq. m. The See also:main stream has its source in two lakes named Tsaring-nor and Oring-nor, lying about 350 N., 970 E., and after flowing with a See also:south-easterly course it bends sharply to the See also:north-See also:west and north, entering China in the See also:province of Kansuh in See also:lat. 36°. After passing Lanchow-fu, the See also:capital of this province, the river takes an immense sweep to the north and north-See also:east, until it encounters the rugged barrier ranges that here run north and south through the provinces of Shansi and Chihli. By these ranges it is forced due south for 500 m., forming the boundary between the provinces of Shansi and Shensi, until it finds an outlet eastwards at Tung Kwan—a pass which for centuries has been renowned as the See also:gate of Asia, being indeed the See also:sole commercial passage between central China and the West. At Tung Kwan the river is joined by its only considerable affluent in China proper, the Wei (Wei-ho), which drains the large province of Shensi, and the combined See also:volume of See also:water continues its way at first east and then north-east across the See also:great See also:plain to the See also:sea. At See also:low water in the See also:winter See also:season the See also:discharge is only about 36,000 cub. ft. per second, whereas during the summer See also:flood it reaches 116,000 ft. or more. The amount of sediment carried down is very large, though no accurate observations have been made. In the See also:account of See also:Lord See also:Macartney's See also:embassy, which crossed the Yellow river in 1792, it was calculated to be 17,520 million cub. ft. a }See also:Tar, but this is considered very much over the See also:mark. Two reasons, however, combine to render it probable that, the sedimentary See also:matter is very large in proportion to the volume of water: the first being the great fall, and the consequently rapid current over two-thirds of the river's course; the second that the drainage area is nearly all covered with deposits of See also:loess, which, being very friable, readily gives way before the rainfall and is washed down in large quantity. The ubiquity of this loess or yellow See also:earth, as the Chinese See also:call it, has in fact given its name both to the river which carries it in See also:solution and to the sea (the Yellow Sea) into which it is discharged. It is calculated by Dr Guppy (See also:Journal of China See also:Branch of Royal See also:Asiatic Society, vol. xvi.) that the sediment brought down by the three See also:northern See also:rivers of China, viz., the Yangtsze, the Hwang-ho and the Peiho, is 24,000 million cub. ft. per annum, and is sufficient to fill up the whole of the Yellow Sea and the Gulf of Pechili in the space of about 36,000 years. Unlike the Yangtsze, the Hwang-ho is of no See also:practical value for See also:navigation. The silt and See also:sand See also:form See also:banks and bars at the mouth, the water is too shallow in winter and the current is too strong in summer, and, further, the See also:bed of the river is continually shifting. It is this last feature which has earned for the river the name " China's sorrow." As the silt-laden waters debouch from the rocky bed of the upper reaches on to the plains, the current slackens, and the coarser detritus settles on the bottom. By degrees the bed rises, and the See also:people build embankments to prevent the river from overflowing. As the bed rises the embankments must be raised too, until the stream is flowing many feet above the level of the surrounding See also:country. As See also:time goes on the situation becomes more and more dangerous; finally, a See also:breach occurs, and the whole river pours over the country, carrying destruction and ruin with it. If the breach cannot be re-paired the river leaves its old channel entirely and finds a new exit to the sea along the See also:line of least resistance. Such in brief has been the See also:story of the river since the See also:dawn of Chinese See also:history. At various times it has discharged its waters alternately on one See also:side or the other of the great See also:mass of mountains forming the promontory of Shantung, and by mouths as far apart from each other as 500 m. At each See also:change it has worked havoc and disaster by covering the cultivated See also:fields with 2 or 3 ft. of sand and mud. A great change in the river's course occurred in 1851, when a breach was made in the north See also:embankment near Kaifengfu in Honan. At this point the river bed was some 25 ft. above the plain; the water consequently forsook the old channel entirely and poured over the level country, finally seizing on the bed of a small river called the Tsing, and thereby finding an exit to the sea. Since that time the new channel thus carved out has remained the proper course of the river, the old or southerly channel being See also:left quite dry. It required some fifteen or more years to repair See also:damages from this out-break, and to confine the stream by new embankments. After that there was for a time See also:comparative See also:immunity from inundations, but in 1882 fresh outbursts again began. The most serious of all took See also:place in 1887, when it appeared probable that there would be again a permanent change in the river's course. By dint of great exertions, however, the See also:government succeeded in closing the breach, though not till See also:January 1889, and not until there had been immense destruction of See also:life and See also:property. The outbreak on this occasion occurred, as all the more serious outbreaks have done, in Honan, a few See also:miles west of the See also:city of Kaifengfu. The stream poured itself over the level and fertile country to the southwards, sweeping whole villages before it, and converting the plain into one vast See also:lake. The area affected was not less than 50,000 sq. m. and the loss of life was computed at over one million. Since 1887 there have been a See also:series of smaller outbreaks, mostly at points See also:lower down and in the neighbourhood of Chinanfu, the capital of Shantung. These perpetually occurring disasters See also:entail a heavy expense on the government; and from the See also:mere pecuniary point of view it would well repay them to call in the best See also:foreign See also:engineering skill available, an expedient, however, which has not commended itself to the Chinese authorities. (G. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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