24. The Tragic Yellow River Has Long Been a Blessing and Curse for China
The Yellow River is probably the world’s most tragic river. Making its way through northern China, the Yellow River has been the cradle of that country’s civilization. Frequently, however, it has also been China’s curse: another name for the Yellow River is “The River of Sorrows“. The river, which got its name from the yellow loess silt that it carries and that gives it a distinctive color, is lined with dikes to keep it from overflowing its banks. Those dikes have failed on numerous occasions, with disastrous consequences.
From time to time throughout China’s history, sudden heavy rainfalls have caused the Yellow River’s water level to rise rapidly. Sometimes that leads to the river topping and overflowing the protective dikes, or breaching them outright. In 1887, one such episode led to the Yellow River’s deadliest flooding, and history’s second deadliest natural disaster.
