TOURIST AREA OF THE YELLOW RIVER

The Huanghe is the nurturing river of Chinese civilization and also the cause of many of its misfortunes. Since time immemorial, due to its devastating floods, it has caused the greatest periods of famine in China. In summer, he drops as much water in three months as in a year in Paris! A dramatic lack of vegetation on most of the basin results in a wild erosion of loess plateaus: world record of turbidity, the river makes a million tonnes of silt a year. After its last elbow, when the river enters the Henan region, the relief is no longer on the slope and the Yellow River no longer has the force to roll its load.

Half of the silt is deposited throughout the large plain and the bed is gradually closed. The level of water amount, the dikes are built to control the course of the river. Particularity: The Yellow River is suspended a few tens of meters high. But when the dams fail, the river is sinking and a headlong south-facing race is underway. The current route of the river dates back to 1947. In 1938, Chang Kai-chek used this natural provision to stop the Japanese advance: it blew down the dikes, flooding the whole region. Transaction price: over one million deaths and several million homeless.

In 1947, the Americans made available their technical know-how to repair the dam and set up a irrigation valve where a memorial stele was erected from Mao's hand: " Tame the waters of the Yellow River. '»»»»

Today floods are partly controlled thanks to a series of dams (electric power stations) upstream supplemented by large-scale reforestation, which should ultimately maintain this yellow earth (loess) on the plateaus. A vast park overlooks the great river in Mangshan: Beautiful view of the Yellow River from the kiosks and pagodas nestled in wooded hills. Hovercraft towers are organized on the river.