Mark Gibson

The Yellow River

Posted on May 6th, 2007 by mark.
Categories: General News, Travelogue, China 2007.

Huang He Gong Yuan or the yellow river park was our destination for that day. I had read about it in the guide as a place worth visiting, not for it’s temples which it said were very dilapidated and not worth a glance but for the views of the Yellow River and also a nice place for a walk for the afternoon. The one thing I remember reading about the yellow river was that apart from it being the life blood of the region it was also one of Chinas natural disasters with the route the river takes over history has changed by about 300 miles. Sun Yat Sen used the Huang He to defeat the japanese by destroying the dykes and flooding hundreds of miles of farmland and villages in the process.

Taking the local bus out to the park was interesting in its own right we joined the throng at the bus station and stood by the no. 16 bus which looked about ready to depart. One of the bus company personnel directed me towards the end of the queue which turned out to be 3 bus stops away, I guess this was a popular place to visit. It was something of a surprise to actually find what looked very much like a theme park and a well organised one. The recently constructed heads of Huang di and his successor tower over the park and look out across the river. We wandered past large bells which we could use suspended logs to chime if we wished up to the top of a raised concrete area where we could get a good view of the park. The river extending across the flat plateau in front of us was the major feature which dominated everything around us with the rail bridge extending out into the hazy mist in the distance. On turning to the left we could see a range of hills with temples perched right on the top and a cable car stretching up to the tallest peak and a slide which runs all the way down, which naturally we had to try.

Towards the end of the afternoon we took a hovercraft along the yellow river and had a bounce about on some of the mud while trying to avoid being sold a ride on some very hot looking horses (that would be temperature hot!)

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