23. Much of China’s History Has Revolved Around a Tragic Struggle to Control the Yellow River
The Yellow River carries massive amounts of silt – about 1.5 billion tons each year. Throughout most of China’s history, it was not dredged. The result was a steady accumulation of silt at the river’s bottom, causing the riverbed to rise steadily. A rising riverbed is bad news for those living and farming along its banks. The shallower the river gets, the wider it becomes, threatening to flood adjacent lands.
Much of China’s history has been about preventing that from happening, usually with massively labor-intensive projects to line the Yellow River with protective dikes. As the river rose over the years, so did the dikes. This went on for thousands of years, until China ended up with a river flowing along at an elevated level, often higher than the adjacent land. So when the dikes failed, the results were tragic. As in the catastrophic type of tragedy. Unlike with most other rivers, when the Yellow River floods, the floodwaters don’t rise gradually. Instead, they come crashing down from on high, sweeping all in their path with great violence.
