Walking the Wall

The Yellow River near Shapotou in August

For better or worse, rivers and irrigated agriculture gave rise to most of the world’s great ancient civilizations. The oldest agricultural civilization, Mesopotamia, developed along the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates; the Nile gave birth to Egypt, and ancient India came into being in the valley of the Indus.

In China, the Yellow River – Huang He – is known as “the cradle of Chinese civilization.” At 5464 kilometres, it is the second longest river in China and the seventh longest river in the world. Even more than the longer Yangtze, the Yellow River is central to Chinese history. The oldest distinctively Chinese civilizations developed along the Yellow around 3000 BC. China’s ancient capitals of Chang’an and Luoyang were both situated on its tributaries. Long sections of the Great Wall were built expressly to protect the fields watered by the river.

An old irrigation canal. Sometimes we walk along canals when there are breaks in the wall.

For thousands of years the Yellow River has been a “working river,” to use the Australian jargon for rivers whose natural attributes have been sacrificed to production. Its primary use was irrigation, and the primary means for getting water from the river to the ditches above was an ingenious contraption known as the waterwheel.

Reconstructed waterwheels in Lanzhou

As you can see from the photo above, a waterwheel looks like a narrow version of a paddlewheel on an old steamboat, but unlike a paddlewheel, it does its work without the assistance of a steam engine. The river’s current pushes the paddles on the waterwheel so that it turns continuously. Meanwhile, buckets built into, or attached to, the paddles scoop water from the river. When the buckets reach the top of the waterwheel, they spill into a flume.

Emptying the load

Before the invention of modern pumps, there would have been thousands of waterwheels, large and small, along the Yellow, but today most waterwheels are reconstructions for tourists, like those pictured above. However, along the smaller canals that transport water from the river to the fields, there are still a few in use, like this one near Zhongwei.

This waterwheel delivers water to a small orchard

Irrigation remains the main use of the Yellow River today, but in the last century or so it’s had to take on a number of extra jobs - hydropower generation, industrial use - and today it is a thoroughly overworked river. Demand for the river’s water is such that it has sometimes failed to reach the ocean in recent years, and with China’s rapid industrialisation, the Yellow has become one of the most polluted rivers in the world.

A modern concrete-lined irrigation canal

A hydropower dam near Qingtongxia

Despite its problems, the Yellow is still able to manage a bit of fun and games. At Shapotou, where dunes from the Tengger Desert spill down to water’s edge, there is a large amusement park. When we were there on August 5, the day I broke my foot, the place was a madhouse, with throngs of tour groups pouring out of buses, camels milling around in the 35 degree heat, and children dripping ice cream all over themselves and anything within reach. On our return in November, the atmosphere was more subdued, but that just made it easier for the big kids to have a turn.

Me going for a new sand speed record

Emma at the helm