Yellow, the color of autumn leaves and ripe grain crops, is the most brilliant color of Nature, a color that sigifies maturity and harvest.

In the Chinese version of Genesis, the God of Heaven created the ancestors of the Chinese nation with yellow clay. Dwelling on the Yellow River and on the Yellow Earth known as loess and propagating there, the Chinese people have formed an indissoluble bond with the color of yellow. Even the Chinese skin has attained the color of the loess plateau. The Chinese, an industrial, kind and tenacious people, have created a unique civilization in the world on this land of yellow color.

For a very long period of time in the Chinese history, however, the color of yellow was closely related to the supreme imperial power beyong the reach of the ordinary people. Yellow was symbolic of majestery and supremacy-a color with a measure of mystic power in the eyes of many people in China.

The paddy field with bumper harvest

Rape-seed flowers

The highest flow of Hukou Waterfall at the Yellow River can reach 8000 cublc meters per second

Boatmen at the Yellow River

When we trace the origin of humanity, we find all of the major early huamn civilizations rose from the plains of river valleys, one of which was the ancient Chinese civilization. And the Yellow River Basin served as the cradle of that civilization. Archeological findings show that human lives could be traced back to more than a million years ago in the Yellow River Basin.

The Yellow River originates on the northern slope of the Bayan Har Mountain on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and meanders for more than 5400 kilometers. More than two thousands years ago, the Chinese people simply called the Yellow River "the River." The present name of the river was derived from the river water laden with heavy silt as a result of the water and soil erosion in the later years. Today the very mention of the Yellow River reminds people of the turbulent flow of the yellow water of the river.

The Yellow River Basin had been the political, economic and cultural center of China for thousands of years since Xia, the first dynasty of the recorded Chinese history 21 centuries before Christ, up to early 12th century. The ancient Chinese capitals in the Yellow River Basin include Xi'an, Luoyang, Kaifeng and Zhengzhou, all of which were nurtured by the water of the Yellow River.

Over the past tens of thousands of years, the Yellow River has brought blessings as well as troubles and disasters to the Chinese people in its basin. How to tame this unruly river has been a primary task for the rulers of numerous dynasties. The Chinese people are very familiar with the stories of the Great Yu and his father leading the people in taming the Yellow River. Legends say that Gun, Yu's father, tried to block the flooding water from the Yellow River and succeeded. This story that reflects the wisdom of the philosophy of guidance instead of suppression remains the guiding thinking to the work of water conservancy today.