The Yellow River is regarded as China’s mother river and the cradle of Chinese civilization.

The Yellow River (or 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 km (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 basin has an east–west extent of 1,900 kilometers (1,180 mi) and a north–south extent of 1,100 km (680 mi). Its total basin area is 742,443 square kilometers (286,659 sq. mi).

The Yellow River is called "the cradle of Chinese civilization", as its basin—specifically, the Wei River Valley that cuts across the south of the long Ordos Loop—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 unenviable names China's Sorrow and Scourge of the Sons of Han.

Prior to the advent of modern dams in China, the Yellow River was extremely prone to flooding. In the 2,540 years prior to AD 1946, the Yellow River has been reckoned to have flooded 1,593 times, shifting its course 26 times noticeably and nine times severely. These floods include some of the deadliest natural disasters ever recorded. Before modern disaster management, when floods occurred, some of the population might initially die from drowning but then many more would suffer from the ensuing famine and spread of diseases.