China map and Yellow River

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akdreemer
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China map and Yellow River

Post by akdreemer »

Please explain why the Yellow River in China is not where it should be?


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akdreemer
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RE: China map and Yellow River

Post by akdreemer »

and....

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el cid again
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RE: China map and Yellow River

Post by el cid again »

It was an act of war. It occurs before WE think the war in the PTO began - but actually is part of that war's first chapter: what the Chinese call The War of Resistence.

First - some technical stuff:

a) The Yellow River is probably the most silt laden in the world - it gets its very name from its silt content - which is carried from where it crosses a vast area with lots of loam.

b) The silt of the Yellow River is always dropping to the bottom - messing up the channel. When this happens enough the river overflows its banks - and fails to be useful for irrigation or navigation. So the Chinese - for thousands of years - built up the sides of the river - sort of dykes. At the Eastern end, the Yellow River BOTTOM is MANY meters ABOVE the flood plain! You have - in effect - an "elevated river" contained between two gigantic earth works.

c) It was decided to breech these dykes near Kaifeng - in such a way that the Yellow River would feed down an another river bed - and ultimately end up in an older exit mouth of the ancient Yellow River - above some giant lakes just North of Shanghai. This act would cause millions of people to be displaced and/or drown - and indeed that is what happened.
But it would mess up road communications and economic recovery for the Japanese as they moved into this area. So it was done.

You can see both routes if you get the mechanical game War of Resistence. The original river is on the map. The new river is put on the map using overlays. In RHS we used this data to add additional swamp areas to the playing area, about four hexes worth (there were already two).

You also can see a museum dedicated to this act at Kaifeng today. There are wonderful black and white photographs of the breeching - and post war repair - of the dyke system. The basic details of the story are in every Chinese history of the period which gives even the most basic description of the war.
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Andrew Brown
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RE: China map and Yellow River

Post by Andrew Brown »

ORIGINAL: AlaskanWarrior

Please explain why the Yellow River in China is not where it should be?

As El Cid mentions, the river was diverted when the Nationalist Chinese breached its containing dykes in 1938, in an attempt to slow the Japanese advance. The resultant flooding killed hundreds of thousands of Chinese in the process. The original course of the river was restored by the Communist Chinese in 1947.

The diverted course is shown on the US national Geographic maps that I used when I drew my WitP map.

There is an article about the 1938 flood on Wikipedia.

Andrew
Information about my WitP map, and CHS, can be found on my WitP website

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akdreemer
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RE: China map and Yellow River

Post by akdreemer »

Well I guess that explains it. 
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