Travel in Shanxi Hukou Falls of the Yellow River - Soul of the Nation
| Hukou Falls of the Yellow River - Soul of the Nation |
| Travel in Shanxi | |||
|
Hukou Falls (hú kǒu pù bù 壶口瀑布) is in the middle of Jixian (jí xiàn 吉县) of Shanxi (shān xī 山西) province and Yichuanxian (yí chuān xiàn 宜川县) of Shaanxi (shǎn xī 陕西) province, with the total area of 60 square kilometers. Hukou falls is the largest waterfall of the Yellow River in the world and second-largest falls behind by the Guizhou (guì zhōu 贵州) Huangguoshu (huáng guǒ shù 黄果树) Waterfalls in China. In other words, Hukou falls is a symbol of China.
|
Hukou waterfalls are the most spectacular section in the yellow river, and also the only extraordinary waterfalls in China. “Yellow River water to the sky, the sea no longer torrents back ” is a famous poem writes by poet Libai (lǐ bái 李白). This poem is exactly drawing a magnificent picture of running water of Hukou falls.
In 1997, actor Keshouliang (kē shòu liáng 柯受良), who comes from Hongkong (xiāng gǎng 香港), was driving successful leap from the Hukou waterfalls by his motorbike. He was becoming the first “fly man” in the world. This show greatly improved the reputation of Hukou waterfalls and attracts numbers of domestic and foreign tourists to view it. Now, the Hukou falls are becoming a must-go landscape in China.
The Hukou falls have different views in different season. There are two periods when are better for watching falls. One is from April to May of spring. It is March in the lunar month, the peach flowers blossom on the mountain and ice starts to melt down. The other one is from September to November. At this time, the rainy season just past and rainbow always appears beside of river. Both of times, the width of Hukou waterfalls can be thousand kilometers. It hard to walk close to the main waterfall, but sand far away, you still can feel the power and grandeur of Hukou falls.
Bingcaodaogua (bīng cáo dào guà 冰槽倒挂)
In the Hukou part, the turbulent water is running, with mist into the sky. Just like smoke pours forth from falls. You can see the mist even stand ten miles out. The mist is related with different season and flow rates. In winter, river was frozen; falls almost turn to ice column and the surface water decreases, so that mist hardly can be seen. In summer, the flow rates significant increases, but waterfalls disappear. For the reason that the moderate flow and temperature are two of vital conditions of formation of mist, consequently, spring and autumn are best season for watching mist in Hukou falls.
In past, it was too danger to sail in Hukou falls. Therefore, all of shipping had to stop at the upriver and discharged cargo, then rope the empty ship one by one, and draw the ship from river to sand by manpower. Until passed to Hukou falls, people sent empty ship to river and loaded cargo again, then keep sailing on river. Boating on sand is the optimal choose for transporting on river. But this way has already stopped since so many years ago, because the railway, freeway develops and Yellow River Bridge builds well, but the mark of sailing on sand still existence.
A huge river rocks is in the river channel of 3000 meters down of Hukou falls, people call it Mengmenshan (mèng mén shān 孟门山). At this point, the river divides into two rivers, rushing down from both side of rock and merge into one. It is a good place to looking at the view of moon at night.
In winter, the falls mixed with influx of ice spout to Hukou and stacks up layer by layer. It forms a natural bridge between shanxi and shaanxi province. It names Hukou Ice Bridge.
China Travel Guide
China Yellow Pages
Copyright © 2007 - 2024 Foreigners in China | Travel in China | China Travel Guide