Yellow River

The Yellow River or Huang He is the third longest river in Asia, after the Yangtze River and Yenisei River, and the sixth-longest river system in the world at the estimated length of 5464km. Originating in the Bayan Har Mountains in Qinghai province of western China, it flows through nine provinces, and it empties into the Bohai Sea near the city of Dongying in Shandong province. The Yellow River basin has an east–west extent of about 1900km and a north–south extent of about 1100km. Its total drainage area is about 752,546km².Its basin was the birthplace of ancient Chinese civilization, and it was the most prosperous region in early Chinese history. However, because of frequent devastating floods and course changes produced by the continual elevation of the river bed, sometimes above the level of its surrounding farm fields, it also has the names China's Sorrow and 'Scourge of the Han People'.NameEarly Chinese literature including the Yu Gong or Tribute of Yu dating to the Warring States period refers to the Yellow River as simply (Old Chinese: *C.gˤaj, modern Chinese (Pinyin) Hé), a character that has come to mean "river" in modern usage. The first appearance of the name (Old Chinese: *N-kʷˤaŋ C.gˤaj; Middle Chinese: Huang Ha) is in the Book of Han written during the Eastern Han dynasty about the Western Han dynasty. The adjective "yellow" describes the perennial color of the muddy water in the lower course of the river, which arises from soil (loess) being carried downstream.