Hoang-ho

Hoang-ho ('Yellow River'), or simply Ho, one of the principal rivers of China, more than 3000 miles in length, rises in the plain of Odontala, south of the Kuen-Lun Mountains, and has a tortuous course, described in the article CHINA, Vol. III. pp. 184, 185. From the southernmost corner of the province of Chih-li, which it crosses, the Yellow River flowed until recently eastward to the ocean, 650 miles distant, in 34° lat.; but in 1851-53 this wayward and turbulent stream, which is said to have shifted its course nine times in 2500 years, turned off near Kaifung-foo in a north-easterly direction. Since then it discharges its waters into the Gulf of Pechili, some 500 miles north of its former mouth, the mountainous province of Shan-tung lying between the two. The river is little used for navigation, Chinese vessels being unable to stem its impetuous current. In some parts of its eastern course, as in the case of the Po, the river-bed is above the great plain through which it passes. The embankments requisite for averting inundations are a source of never-ending expense to the government, and their yielding to floods a frequent cause of desolation to extensive districts of country. In 1887, by a dreadful inundation in Ho-nan, 'China's sorrow' destroyed millions of lives. The measures subsequently taken by the Chinese government to regulate the course of the river proved futile. About 170 miles of the upper course of the Hoang-ho were explored for the first time by Prejevalsky in 1880. The vast quantity of sediment conveyed to the sea by this river, giving it its colour and name, is taken up in that part of its course which lies between the provinces of Shan-hsi and Shen-hsi; beyond which its waters are remarkably clear.