The Yellow River originates from the Zhanzonglie Canal at the northern foot of Bayan Kara, Qinghai, with an altitude of more than 5,400 meters, and the surrounding mountains are covered with snow all year round. There is a sea of stars at the source of the Yellow River, which is a swamp of countless small lakes. After leaving Xinghai, enter Eling Lake and Zhaling Lake to Maduo, bypass Jishishan and Xiqingshan, and cross Longyangxia to Guide, Qinghai, with a total length of 1900 kilometers. The upstream section is from Guide to Hekou Town, Suiyuan Province, with a total length of 1500 kilometers. The Yellow River is in Gansu, passing through many grand canyons and gathering many tributaries. The middle reaches from Hekou Town to Yujin, with a total length of 1 100 kilometers. The river flows south through the Loess Plateau, carrying a lot of sediment, rushing down to Hukou, where the terrain is steep, forming Hukou Waterfall, and then passing through Longmen Gorge to Tongguan, the river channel becomes wider, and the water volume increases greatly because of the confluence of Qin Fen, Luohe and Xiaoshui tributaries. When the river reaches Tongguan, it is blocked by Huashan Mountain, turns east, crosses Sanmenxia to Luo Yu, and then enters the plain area. The downstream section flows into the Bohai Sea from Jinmeng to Lijin County, Shandong Province, with a total length of more than 870 kilometers. Due to sediment deposition and slow water flow, dikes are built on both banks and become rivers above the ground.
The headwaters and upper reaches of the Yellow River are the most tortuous, followed by the middle reaches, and the lower reaches are straight. From Lanzhou to Tongguan, the river bypasses a rectangle on three sides, which is the famous Hetao, about 2000 kilometers long. Ancient rivers drifted downstream, sometimes the river flowed into the Bohai Sea in the northern part of Shandong hills, and sometimes it seized the Huaihe River and flowed into the Yellow Sea in the southern part of Shandong hills, with a distance of 500 kilometers.
Historically, the Yellow River has flooded cities. According to records, over the past 2000 years, the lower reaches of the Yellow River have burst its banks 1500 times and changed its course on a large scale for 26 times. The flood-stricken area reaches Tianjin in the north and Jiangsu and Anhui in the south, reaching 250,000 square kilometers. The total amount of sediment carried by river water exceeds1600 million metric tons every year on average. Due to the low terrain, gentle river slope and slow flow rate, a large amount of sediment is deposited on the river bed, with an average of more than 400 million metric tons per year. The rest of the sediment flows to the estuary and alluvial into the estuary delta extending to the sea, with an average of more than 20 square kilometers of land reclamation every year. The Yellow River basin has fertile soil, rich products and magnificent mountains and rivers. Residents account for almost a quarter of the total population of China, while cultivated land accounts for about 40% of the country.