Along the Yellow river Travel Guide
From Wikitravel
The Yellow River (Huang He) is one of China's great rivers and a historic transport route. It is not as important a tourist route as the Yangtze further South, but might be of interest to some.
The Yellow River is not tame. Only parts of it are navigable; other sections have quite a rapid current. Over the centuries the river has changed its course several times and has had several disastrous floods.. Irrigation and flood control projects have been going on in the area for several thousand years and have never achieved complete success.
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Understand
Chinese civilisation first developed along the Yellow River (Huang He). From there it spread, first to other fertile areas like the lower Yangtze (Chang Jiang) basin and the Sichuan basin further up that river, then to other zones.
Cities
The river rises in Qinghai in the foothills of the Himalayas and runs North to Inner Mongolia. There it runs in a big arc, with the Great Wall following it for some distance, before turning East toward the sea.
Cities on its route, listed from source to coast:
- Xining, capital of Qinghai
- Lanzhou, capital of Gansu
- Yinchuan, capital of Ningxia
- Baotou, largest city in Inner Mongolia
- the capital, Hohhot, is near the river but not on it
- Zhengzhou, capital of Henan
- Jinan, capital of Shandong, is just up the river from the coast
Of course there are many smaller towns as well.
Prepare
Get in
Go
Stay safe
General precautions against common scams and pickpockets are advisable anywhere in China.
