The Yellow River: China's Sorrow

The Yellow River earned its name from the massive loess sediment it carries — and its grim nickname from its catastrophic floods. Over recorded history it has burst its banks and shifted course many times, and some of those floods rank among the deadliest disasters ever recorded.

Despite this destruction, the Yellow River valley became the cradle of Chinese civilization. Controlling the river took massive collective effort, which helped cultivate the centralized government structures that have shaped China to this day.