Yellow River

• The Yellow River (Huang Ho)

The first Chinese lived in North China Plain, along Yellow River valley, Longer than half a million years ago. The Xia ruled an area north of the Yellow River. Xia Dynasty was the first dynasty to unite a large area of China. It was called Yellow River because it frequently floods its banks with loess (a thick yellow soil) and winds blowing from the Gobi Desert have dropped even more loess onto this area. The early people found that crops grew easily on the loess soil and so they settled on the plain. Loess is very fertile when wet but without rain or the river flooding, it soon turns to dust. It brought a lot of unexpected floods and drought that the Chinese had then learned to build dikes, dams, canals, and irrigation systems.