Hukou Waterfalls
Interesting facts
- Geologists date the waterfall's birth to about 245,000 years ago and estimate it has been eating its way upstream at roughly 25 cm a year since.
- In September 1938 the poet Guang Weiran crossed the Yellow River by wooden boat near Hukou, and the boatmen's fight with the current inspired the Yellow River Cantata.
- Guang Weiran's long poem was set to music by Xian Xinghai in six days in March 1939, and the Yellow River Cantata premiered in Yan'an that April.
- Downstream of the fall the river splits around two rocky islets called Mengmen; according to legend, Yu the Great cleaved a single mountain in two to free the river.
- The image behind the name is ancient: early Chinese geographical writing likened the swirling river here to water poured out of a pot.
- It is the largest waterfall on the Yellow River and the second largest in China, surpassed only by Huangguoshu Waterfall in Guizhou.
- In 1997 the stuntman Ko Shou-liang leapt across the Yellow River at Hukou in a car, and a motorcycle jump by Zhu Chaohui followed.
- In deep winter the edges of the fall freeze into curtains and columns of ice while the silt-laden water keeps pouring through the centre.
- The area around the fall became the Hukou Waterfall National Geological Park, which officially opened in September 2006.
Why it is worth it
At Hukou the Yellow River, around 300 metres wide just upstream, is suddenly squeezed into a rock channel less than 50 metres across and drops into it with a roar. The name means "kettle mouth" or "flask mouth": the whole river seems to pour out of the spout of a giant teapot. The fall itself is not tall — around 15 to 20 metres at its main step — but the volume and the colour make it unlike almost any other waterfall. The water is thick with loess silt from the plateau it has crossed, so the torrent is ochre and tawny rather than white, and it is often called the largest yellow waterfall in the world.
The fall sits where the middle Yellow River cuts through the Jinxia Grand Canyon, on the boundary between Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces; one bank belongs to Ji County, the other to Yichuan County. The main channel is usually about 30 metres wide and swells to around 50 metres in flood season, when the river spreads over the surrounding rock shelves and the whole bed seems to boil. On sunny days the spray rising from the gorge catches the light and throws a rainbow over the brown water — the contrast is one of the images most associated with the place.
Hukou has a symbolic weight in China that goes beyond scenery. The Yellow River is considered the cradle of Chinese civilisation, and this is the one point along its course where its force is concentrated into a single, visible spectacle. The fall appeared on the back of the 50-yuan note in the fourth series of the renminbi, and in 1991 it was named among the country's forty best scenic areas. Local lore adds curiosities of its own, such as a boulder below the fall said to rise and sink with the water level.
The Qilangwo Bridge crosses the river just below the fall and links the two provinces, so the river can be seen from both banks — each side has its own scenic area and its own angle on the torrent.
Getting there
The Shaanxi side is about 48 km from the county town of Yichuan in Yan'an prefecture; the Shanxi side lies about 130 km from Linfen. Hancheng is the nearest larger city in straight-line terms, about 76 km away. The closest airport is Yan'an Nanniwan Airport (ENY), about 95 km away; regular buses run from Yan'an to the falls, a journey of about three hours. There are also buses from Xi'an (around five hours) and tourist buses from Linfen on the Shanxi side.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
The Hukou Waterfalls is the largest waterfall on the Yellow River, the second largest waterfall in China, and the world's largest yellow waterfall. It is located at the intersection of the provinces of Shanxi and Shaanxi, 165 km (103 mi) to the west of Fenxi County, and 50 km (31 mi) to the east of Yichuan County where the middle reaches of the Yellow River flow through Jinxia Grand Canyon. The width of the waterfall changes with the season, usually 30 metres (98 ft) wide but increasing to 50 m (164 ft) during flood season. It has a height of over 20 m (66 ft). When the Yellow River approaches the Hukou Mountain, blocked by mountains on both sides, its width is abruptly narrowed down to 20–30 m (66–98 ft). The water's velocity increases, and then plunges over a narrow opening on a cliff, forming a waterfall 15 m (49 ft) high and 20 m (66 ft) wide, as if water were pouring down from a huge teapot. Hence it gets the nickname Hukou Waterfall.
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