Henan

Relief

Henan can be divided topographically into two parts, the western highlands and the eastern plains. In the northwest the rugged Taihang and Zhongtiao mountains form the steep eastern edge of the Shanxi Plateau, rising in places above 5,000 feet (1,524 metres). They are part of the Taihang fold system of Permian times (i.e., about 250 to 300 million years ago), have a general northeast-to-southwest trend, and mark the northern border of the province.

South of the Huang He there is a broad stretch of upland comprising a number of moderately high mountain basins, the main ranges being the Xiong’er and Funiu. These mountains, which have an east-west trend, are the eastern extension of the Qin (Tsinling) Mountain axis that divides China geologically and geographically into North and South. The Tongbai and Dabie ranges form a further extension of this axis, running in a southeasterly direction and marking the border between Henan and Hubei. The Tongbai range is separated from the Funiu by a gap some 75 to 100 miles (120 to 160 km) wide cut by the Tang and Bai rivers, which are tributaries of the Han River. This gap gives easy access from the Henan Plain to the central basin of the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang), a route much used from Han times onward in Chinese expansion southward.

To the east lie the plains. Until fairly recent geological times the mountains in the west formed the coast of a sea that, essentially, was the western extension of the present Bo Hai (Gulf of Chihli) and Yellow Sea. That sea, now filled with silt brought down by the rivers and by the wind from the Loess Plateau, forms the North China Plain and the Huai River basin; it is estimated that the sediment of the plain is now some 2,800 feet (850 metres) deep in places. It is part of the great subduction zone (downwarping part of the Earth’s crust) that extends from Heilongjiang to Jiangxi provinces. The floor of this zone is sinking at a rate equal to that of deposition.

Drainage

Henan has three river systems: the Huang He in the north and northeast, the Huai River in the east and southeast, and the Tang and Bai rivers in the southwest. The latter two drain southward into Hubei, eventually joining the Han River (a major tributary of the Yangtze River [Chang Jiang]).

The Huang He—known in Chinese literature simply as the He (“River”)—turns eastward (immediately after its confluence with the Wei River) just west of the junction of the borders of Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Henan. From there it soon enters the Sanmen Gorge, flowing east-northeast for some 80 miles (130 km) between Shanxi and Henan before issuing onto the plain and flowing east directly across northern Henan. It is remarkable that from the confluence with the Wei to the sea, a distance of about 600 miles (1,000 km), the Huang He receives only two comparatively small tributaries: the right-bank Luo River, on which Luoyang stands, and the left-bank Qin River.

The Huang He is subject to extreme changes in summer and winter flow. In time of maximum flow (summer) the river carries an enormous load of silt, gathered mainly in its course through the Loess Plateau of Shaanxi and Shanxi provinces. There is a Chinese saying that “if you fall into the Huang He, you never get clean again.” Prior to the damming of the river at Sanmen Gorge, the river was fast flowing through the gorge, and it was able to carry its load of silt until it issued onto the plain; at that point, its pace was checked, it could no longer carry the silt, and flooding occurred.

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Throughout historical times, this menace was met by building levees to contain the waters. Generally, these dikes were built 5 to 8 miles (8 to 13 km) apart, parallel to the river’s banks, to give the river plenty of room to flow in time of spate (flooding), but instead the load of silt slowly spread within the confines of the dikes, building up the riverbed through the centuries, until today it lies above the surrounding countryside. Dikes have been built higher and higher, and when they failed to hold—as has happened in some part of the province almost every year—the river descended onto the plain, causing disastrous floods, the waters of which could not return to the high streambed when the river’s flow slackened. The result was waterlogging of the soil, crop destruction, and famine.

Because the watershed between the Huang and Huai rivers is almost imperceptible, the Huang He has radically changed its course several times in the last three millennia, flowing to the sea first south, then north of the Shandong Peninsula. The diversion has always been in northern Henan between Zhengzhou and Kaifeng. In 1938, in an attempt to arrest the advance of the invading Japanese Army, the Huang He was deliberately diverted to the south by blowing up the dikes near Zhengzhou and flooding 21,000 square miles (54,000 square km) of land, at an estimated cost of 900,000 lives. The river was restored to its former northern course in 1947.

Under the People’s Republic, work along the river has included continued strengthening of the dikes and construction of the 30-mile- (50-km-) long People’s Victory Canal, which diverts Huang He water to the Wei River (of northeastern Henan). A dam near the city of Sanmenxia near the Shanxi border was begun in 1956 as part of an extensive flood-control and hydroelectric project. After completion of the dam in the 1970s, silt accumulation cut its generating capacity to a fraction of planned output, hampering much of the province’s industrial development; however, the dam did help control the flood stages of the river.

The Huai River itself and all its major left-bank tributaries have their sources in the mountains of southwestern Henan. They flow eastward onto the Anhui Plain, subjecting it to disastrous floods. In 1949 the Huai basin became the communist regime’s first large water-conservancy program. Six dams were quickly built in the upper reaches of Huai tributaries in Henan. Since 1957 more than 20 large dams, including those at Xianghongdian, Meishan, and Foziling, have been built. Dikes were strengthened, with the result that no serious disaster has since occurred.