黄河

Why this place

The Yellow River is the river of Chinese civilisation: it carries so much loess silt that it runs yellow, it built the North China Plain with that silt, and it has changed course and flooded catastrophically throughout recorded history — which is why it is both the cradle of the culture and its recurring disaster. It runs 5,464km from Qinghai to the Bohai Sea.

What to see

• The source region in Qinghai, at over 4,000 metres
• The Hukou waterfall, where the river is squeezed into a gorge
• The Hetao loop in Inner Mongolia, where the river makes its great northern bend
• The Loess Plateau, where the silt comes from
• The river's mouth in Shandong, where new land is still being made

What to eat

• Yellow River carp, braised with vinegar — the river's classic fish
• The irrigated-plain produce: Ningxia rice, Hetao melons, Shandong wheat

How to plan

The river is too long to 'do' — pick a section: Hukou, the Hetao, or the lower reaches.

Best time

April–October; Hukou is biggest after the summer rains