Which river is known as 'China's Sorrow' due to its devastating floods?

The Yellow River is known as “China’s Sorrow” because its destructive floods have repeatedly devastated northern China.

Also called the Huang He, it begins in the Bayan Har Mountains and flows across the Loess Plateau and North China Plain before entering the Bohai Sea. Its famous yellow color comes from the enormous amount of fine loess sediment carried by the water.

That sediment enriches farmland, but it also settles in the riverbed and raises the channel. When levees fail or the river changes course, floodwater can spread across densely populated plains. Historical floods caused immense loss of life, including the 1887 flood, estimated to have killed roughly 900,000 to 2 million people.

The nickname reflects the river’s double role in Chinese history. Its basin helped support early Chinese civilization and agriculture, earning it positive descriptions such as “China’s Pride,” while recurring floods made it a source of exceptional danger.