This is the Yellow River. Each year the Yellow River carries billions of tons of sediment from the Loess Plateau eastwards to the crop fields of the Chinese heartland.

Historically, the Chinese relationship with the river has been uneasy. Sediment, building up on the riverbed, has caused the Yellow River to burst its banks periodically, unleashing devastating floods, resulting in millions of deaths.

But when tamed with dykes and channels, the river"s bounty is legendary. Even today, half of China"s wheat comes from the Yellow River floodplain.