The Yellow River reaches Hekou Town, Tuoketuo County, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, with a total length of 3,472 kilometers. The middle reaches are from Hekou Town to Taohuayu, Zhengzhou, Henan Province, with a river length of 1206 km. Below Taohuayu is the downstream, with a river length of 786 kilometers. There are many opinions on the division of the upper, middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, and the division scheme of the Yellow River Water Resources Commission is adopted here. The Yellow River runs through China from east to west, with a length of 1.900 km from east to west and a width of1.654,38+0.000 km from north to south, with a total area of 752,443 square kilometers.
The Yellow River, like a lion with its back bowed and its head held high, crosses the mountains of Qinghai and Gansu provinces from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Hetao Plain across Ningxia and Inner Mongolia; Pentium in the ravine between Shanxi and Shaanxi; Break through the "Longmen", turn around at the foot of Huashan Mountain in Xiyue, cross the North China Plain, and head for the coast of Bohai Sea. It flows through 9 provinces and autonomous regions and gathers more than 40 main tributaries and 1000 streams and rivers, with a journey of 5,464 kilometers and a drainage area of more than 750,000 square kilometers, making it the second largest river in China. The average annual precipitation in the whole basin is about 400 mm, while the average annual runoff of the Yellow River is only 57.4 billion cubic meters, ranking eighth among Chinese rivers. There are more than 200 million mu of cultivated land in the basin, and the population is about 654.38+0 billion along the Yulu River downstream.
The average natural runoff of the whole Yellow River for many years is 58 billion cubic meters, the average annual runoff depth of the basin is 77 mm, the per capita water volume of the basin is 593 cubic meters, and the cultivated land is 324 cubic meters.
The cradle of the Chinese nation
"Yellow River, you are the cradle of the Chinese nation, and 5,000 years of ancient culture originated from you ..." This is the lyrics of the famous song Ode to the Yellow River. Whenever people sing this song, they will be immersed in infinite memories of the Yellow River. The Yellow River is the mother river of the Chinese nation. As the birthplace of Chinese civilization, it maintains the blood of the descendants of the Yellow Emperor and is a symbol of the national spirit and feelings of the Chinese nation.
As early as 800,000 years ago in the Paleolithic Age, the ancestors of the Chinese nation lived a life of hunting and gathering in the Yellow River Basin. More than 2,000 primitive village sites have been found in the Yellow River Basin, indicating that in the Neolithic Age, ancestors settled in this vast land and engaged in primitive agricultural production.
In the middle Neolithic period, the Huangdi tribe scattered on the loess plateau in the middle reaches of the Yellow River. At that time, Chiyou tribe and Yan Di tribe were the three major tribes in ancient China. They live a nomadic life of uncertain migration. Later, Emperor Yan and Huangdi joined forces to attack and kill Chiyou. Soon, Yan Di people and Huangdi people gradually merged and settled in Shaanxi, Gansu and Shanxi to jointly develop the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River.
Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, which entered the slave society more than 3,500 years ago, are all descendants of the Chinese people. They call themselves "Hua" or "Xia". Chinese is the predecessor of the Han nationality, so the Han people regard the Yellow Emperor as their ancestors and call themselves descendants of the Yellow Emperor. At that time, China people lived in the Central Plains and were considered to be among the four directions, so they were also called "China". Later, Chinese culture spread all over the country, and the word "China" became the name of China.
In Shang Dynasty, Pan Geng moved its capital to Yin Ruins (now Anyang County, Henan Province), and its sphere of influence has reached the North China Plain between Taihang Mountain and Taishan Mountain, which is called Yin Empire. The culture of the Yin Dynasty was quite developed, and it was called the three ancient empires with Egypt and Babylon at that time, and it was the three major cultural centers of the ancient world. In Yin Ruins, exquisite Oracle Bone Inscriptions and exquisite bronze vessels are still preserved. However, outside the three ancient empires, most human beings still live a primitive life. It can be seen that our motherland is one of the ancient civilizations in the world, and the ancient culture originated from the embrace of the Yellow River.
From Yin Dynasty to Northern Song Dynasty, the Yellow River Basin has been the political, economic and cultural center of China for nearly 2,500 years. Xi 'an (known as Chang 'an in ancient times), from the Western Han Dynasty to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, had 1 1 dynasties as its capital, which lasted for more than1/00 years. It not only made an important contribution to the economic and cultural development in ancient China, but also left an immortal chapter for international economic and cultural exchanges. Luoyang, which has been the capital of nine dynasties for nearly a thousand years, is called "the ancient capital of nine dynasties". Historians, scientists and writers gathered in Luoyang, leaving immortal works for China and the world cultural treasure house.
For thousands of years, the Yellow River valley was the center of feudal rule, and the struggle of the broad masses of working people against oppression was also continuous. Chen Sheng and Guangwu in the late Qin Dynasty, Red Eyebrows, Bronze Horses and Yellow Scarves in the Han Dynasty, Wagang Army in the late Sui Dynasty, Huang Chao and Wang Xianzhi in the Tang Dynasty and Li Zicheng and Zhang in the late Ming Dynasty all staged magnificent historical dramas in this land of the Yellow River Basin. During War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation, the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region was a reliable revolutionary base for the people of China until the great People's Republic of China (PRC) was founded.