Hoang-Ho

ho-ang-ho', the most northerly of the great rivers of China. The name signifies Yellow River. Its channel curves in wide loops several hundred miles in diameter, but, on the whole, its course is easterly. It empties into a gulf of the Yellow Sea. The Chinese Wall crosses it twice. In tables of rivers the length of the Hoang-Ho is given at 2,700 miles, and the area of its basin at 540,000 square miles. The lower valley of the Hoang-Ho is an immense delta built up by the river. The soil is alluvial, deep, and of unsurpassed fertility. It is said that this plain, which is about 700 miles long and from 150 to 500 miles in width, maintains a denser population than any other equivalent area of the earth's surface. The river is not particularly desirable for commerce. It is broad and shallow, and is apt to change its course with disastrous results both to commerce and agriculture. It is called China's Sorrow. Its lower course is connected with that of the Yang-tse-Kiang by the Grand Canal of China. See China; Grand Canal; Yang-Tse-Kiang; Great Wall