Hukou Waterfall

Hukou Waterfall, the largest one on the Yellow Rive and the second largest one in China, after the Huangguoshu Waterfalls, is often claimed as "the only yellow waterfall in the world". It is located on the border between Shaanxi province and Shanxi province, 50 kilometers to the east of Yichuanxian County in Shaanxi, and 45 km (28 miles) to the northeast of Jixian County in Shanxi. It was listed as a Key Scenic & District in 1988, a National Geological park of China in 2002. It is nice to visit it when you travel to China for your China holdiday tour.

Wnen the Yellow River flows along the Qinjin Grand Canyon, it runs calmly until it is abruptly narrowed to the width of 50 meters (164 ft), like a kettle mouth, and plunges over a 30 meter (66 ft) cliff, It literally looks as if the water is pouring down from a huge teapot. That's how the name Hukou, literally the Kettle Mouth, came from 2, 000 years ago. And the five kilometer long channel that the river flows along just after falling from Hukou Waterfall was given the name Shili Longcao (Ten Li Long Channel dug by the Chinese Dragon) .

Words and numbers mean nothing when you are near Hukou Waterfall. It changes with the seasons and rainfall. When the peaches blossom in spring, the sleeping Yellow River wakes up and flows with lots of ice, as snow and ice are melting throughout the majority of its basin. Hukou Waterfall at this moment, the "flood season during peach blossoms in the third lunar month", is like thousands of horses galloping forward. In summer, if it's sunny and burning for a length of time, the waterfall may thunder with mist and dancing rainbows or after several rainy days, its width may reach hundreds of meters, forming numerous minor waterfall. Sometimes there is so much rainfall that the whole area including the waterfall itself is engulfed.

Wnen autumn comes, as the upstream of Yellow River is in rainy season, the waterfall shows its great power in the autumn breeze, and casts rainbows through the breeze spray. Besides April and May, this is another period to visit for its magnificence and elegance. 

As winter approaches, the Yellow River in the canyon gradually freezes into a sleeping white dragon. The icicles of the waterfall are just like stalactites in a mysterious upraise underground cave unveiled in the open air. The whole canyon where the waterfall sits is converted to a white fairyland. This is the best time for viewing the scenery of "Smoke upraising from the water"

It would be an excellent idea to listen to the "Yellow River Chorus" before visiting the waterfall, to discover its stories that locals tell on the spot, and to dig in more afterwards.