photos by Zhang Kechun.

www.zhangkechun.com

The Yellow River (Huang He) is the second-longest river in Asia after the Yangtze and the sixth-longest in the world at the estimated length of 5,464 kilometers (3,395 mi). Originating in the Bayan Har Mountains in Qinghai province of western China, it flows through nine provinces and empties into the Bohai Sea near the city of Dongying in Shandong province.
The Yellow River is called "the cradle of Chinese civilization" as its basin was the birthplace of ancient Chinese civilizations and the most prosperous region in early Chinese history. However, frequent devastating floods and course changes produced by the continual elevation of the river bed, sometimes above the level of its surrounding fields, has also earned it the names "China´s Sorrow" and "Scourge of the Sons of Han".