Yellow River

Yellow River

The Yellow River, located in northern China, is one of the longest rivers in the world and the second longest river in China. The total length of the Yellow River is about 5464 kilometers, and its basin area is about 752443 square kilometers according to the people's website, while the total basin area is 795000 square kilometers (including the inner flow area of 42000 square kilometers) according to the website of the Ministry of water resources. The basin has long winter and short summer, wide temperature difference between winter and summer, and distinct seasonal temperature change.

The Yellow River originates from the youguzonglie basin at the northern foot of Bayan Har mountain on the Qinghai Tibet Plateau. It flows from west to East through Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan and Shandong provinces (autonomous regions), and finally flows into the Bohai Sea. The precipitation of the basin is small, mainly dry land agriculture, dry in winter and dry in spring, and the precipitation is concentrated in July and August of summer and autumn.

The middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River are mainly mountainous, while the middle and lower reaches are mainly plain and hilly. Because the middle part of the river flows through the Loess Plateau of China, it carries a lot of sediment, so it is also known as the river with the most sediment content in the world. But in Chinese history, the diversion of the lower Yellow River has brought great influence on human civilization.

The Yellow River is the most important birthplace of Chinese civilization. Chinese call it "Mother River". Every year, it carries 1.6 billion tons of sediment, of which 1.2 billion tons flow into the sea, and the remaining 400 million tons remain in the lower Yellow River for many years, forming an alluvial plain, which is conducive to planting.

The Yellow River Basin is the earliest developed area in China. When most parts of the world were still in a state of ignorance, our hardworking and brave ancestors cut down thorns and grass on this vast land, worked hard to survive, and created a brilliant ancient culture.

Historical changes

Geological Influence

The breeding, birth and development of the Yellow River are restricted by the geological process in the geological history period, with the tectonic movement produced by crustal movement as the external force and the erosion, transportation and accumulation produced by itself under the hydrogeological conditions as the internal force. In the historical process of Chenghe, the movement kept pace with the times. Soil and water loss in the Loess Plateau and sediment accumulation in the lower reaches of the Yellow River began in the prehistoric geological period, and were increasingly affected by human activities. The development of the Yellow River in the early Pleistocene is based on three aspects. In the Middle Pleistocene (1150000-100000 years ago), the ancient Yellow River was born and developed. In the late Pleistocene (100000-10000 years ago), the Yellow River formed a marine system.

River course changes

During the historical period, the Yellow River in the upper and middle reaches of the plain has also undergone evolution, and some changes are still very big. For example, before 1850, the Hetao reach in Inner Mongolia was mainly divided into two branches below Dengkou. The North Branch was the main stream, and it was called Wujia river at the foot of Yinshan Mountain. The South Branch was the present Yellow River. In 1850, the lower reaches of Wujia River to the north of xishanzui were silted up and cut off for about 15 kilometers, so the South Branch became the main stream, and the North Branch became the backwater channel of Houtao irrigation area. The Longmen Tongguan channel also has a large swing. However, the evolution of these reaches has little influence on the development of the whole Yellow River. The channel changes of the Yellow River mainly occurred in the lower reaches.

In history, the scope of the changes of the lower Yellow River reaches Haihe River in the north and Jianghuai River in the south. According to historical records, the lower Yellow River burst more than 1500 times, the major diversion has more than 20 times.

September 2019 is a memorable day in the history of Yellow River regulation. General secretary Xi Jinping held a symposium on ecological protection and high quality development in the the Yellow River River Basin. Since then, the ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin has become a major national strategy, and a new blueprint for Yellow River governance has been unfolded

Focusing on the water conservation areas in the upper reaches of the three rivers, Qilian Mountains and the upper reaches of the Yellow River in Gannan, we will promote the implementation of a number of major ecological protection, restoration and construction projects to improve the capacity of water conservation; in the middle reaches, we will focus on Soil and water conservation and pollution control; in the lower reaches, we will do a good job of protection to promote the health of river ecosystem and improve biodiversity.

General situation of main stream

The source of the Yellow River

The area above Duoshixia in Maduo County of Qinghai Province is the source area of the river, with an area of 22800 square kilometers. It is a part of Qinghai Plateau and belongs to the broad valley belt of Lake Basin, with an altitude of more than 4200 meters. Around the basin, there are majestic mountains, yaradaze mountain in the west, Animaqing mountain (also known as Jishi mountain) in the East, burhanbuda mountain in the north, Bayankala mountain and Yangtze River Basin in the south. The western end of the lake basin is the birthplace of the Yellow River.

There are three branches above Xingxiu sea: Zhaqu, yueguzongliequ and karizu. Zhaqu, located in the northernmost part, originates from chahasila mountain. The river is 70 km long, with narrow channel, few tributaries and limited water supply. It is cut off most of the year. Yueguzong liequ, located in the west of Xingxiu sea, is in the middle of the three upper sources. It originates from the southwest corner of yueguzong basin, with an altitude of 4750 meters and a very small amount of water. It is a stream with a width of 1.0-1.5 meters and a depth of 0.1-0.2 meters. The southern tributary is kariqu, which originates from the north foot of gezigeya mountain, the branch of Bayankala mountain. At an altitude of 4800 meters, five springs gush out of the valley and merge into a small river with a width of about 3 meters, a depth of 0.3-0.5 meters and a flow rate of about 3 meters per second. The river has water all the year round.

The earliest record about the source of the Yellow River is Shangshu Yugong in the Warring States period, which has the saying of "leading the river to accumulate stones, as for Longmen". Jishi is located near the Salar Autonomous County of Xunhua, Qinghai Province, and is quite far away from the source of the river. In 635 A.D., Hou Junji and Li daozong were ordered to attack Tuyuhun, xingsuchuan (xingsuhai) and dabaihai (Zaling Lake) to see Jishishan and the headwaters of the river. In the first year of emperor Mu Zong's Changqing reign in the Tang Dynasty (821 AD), Liu Yuanding was sent to Tibet as an envoy. He passed by the Heyuan district and learned that the Heyuan came from the Zishan (now Bayankala mountain).

It was in 1280 that the emperor ordered ronglugong to be an envoy to the source of the Yellow River. It took four months to find out the location of the two great lakes (known as "Er Ju Ze" in the history of the Yuan Dynasty, and collectively as "ala Naoer") and trace back to xingsuhai. After that, the earliest map of the source area of the Yellow River was drawn.

In 1704, he ordered Laxi and Shulan to explore the source of the river. After exploring the source, they drew a picture of the source of the Xingxiu River and wrote a record of the source of the river, pointing out that "the source of the three branches of the river" flows eastward into Zaling lake and can be regarded as the source of the Yellow River. In the 56th year of Kangxi (1717), lamas such as chuerqinzangbu and lanmuzhanba were sent to Heyuan for mapping. In the outline of waterways written by Qi Zhaonan during the reign of Qianlong, it is pointed out that there are three rivers in the upper source of the Yellow River (Zhaqu in the north, Maju in the middle and kariqu in the South), and the Altan River in the middle is the "origin" of the yellow river.

In 1952, the Yellow River Commission organized a survey team to survey the source of the Yellow River and the possibility of transferring water from the Tongtian River to the Yellow River. It took four months to confirm that Maqu was the main source of the Yellow River.

In 1978, the people's Government of Qinghai Province and the military region of Qinghai Province invited relevant units to form an investigation team to conduct field investigation, and put forward the suggestion that karizu should be used as the source of the river (Chengduo county). The article says that the south source is karizu, and karizu comes from all kinds of Dongya and Nazarene, so it should be the main source. There are three reasons: first, it has a long history; second, it has the same color as Maqu; third, it has a large amount of water. According to the aerial survey map of 1 / 100000, the length of karizqu is 25 kilometers longer than that of ancient Liezong. Karizqu basin covers an area of 3126 square kilometers, and guzongliequ basin covers an area of 2372 square kilometers. Near the confluence of kariqu and guzongliequ, the measured discharge of kariqu is 6.3 m3 / s, and that of guzongliequ is 2.5 m3 / s. According to the investigation of the source of the Yellow River in 1978, karizqu was identified as the main source of the Yellow River.

In 1985, the Yellow River Committee confirmed Maqu as the main source of the Yellow River according to the historical tradition and opinions of various schools, and set up the river source mark at Maqu Quguo in the southwest corner of the Yougu zonglie basin, 95 ° 59 ′ 24 ″ E and 35 ° 01 ′ 18 ″ n.

In 2008, the scientific investigation team of the source of the three rivers found that karizqu is 36.54 km longer and its discharge is twice as much as that of the youguzongliequ. According to the three international standards of the main source of the river, that is, "the source of the river is only long, the discharge is only large, and it is consistent with the mainstream direction", and considering the basin area, the development period of the river and the historical habits, the team suggested that the river should be completed in the scientific investigation Results after passing the assessment, the source of the Yellow River was located in karizqu after being approved by legal procedures.

The measurement results in autumn 2008 show that the intake of Zaling lake is the settlement point of the source of the Yellow River

Maqu (jogusongliequ) - Maqu fruit: 217093.6 m;

Maqu (yueguzongliequ) - yueguzongliequ (qingniaolongwa): 222865.3m;

Karizuo: 234601.7 m;

Karizu gariaqiangkaqu bangkaqu: 240486.1m;

Karizu - guriaqiangkaqu - lalangqingqu (lahayong): 250547.1m;

Karizu - guriaqiangkaqu - lalangqingqu - nazalongzha River: 256523.0m.

Trend of main stream

According to the geographical, geological and hydrological conditions of the basin, the main stream of the Yellow River can be divided into upper, middle, lower and 11 river sections.

upper reaches

Hekou Town, from Heyuan to Tuoketuo County, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is the upstream. The river is 3471.6 km long and the drainage area is 428000 square kilometers, accounting for 53.8% of the whole river basin area.

The upper reaches of the Yellow River above Duoshi gorge in Maduo County are called river source areas. Heyuan is locally called Maqu. "Ma" means Maha, Tibetan means peacock, "Qu" means River, "Maqu" means peacock

Chinese PinYin : Huang He