document_title: HSBC Building (Hong Kong)

question_text: who designed the hsbc building in hong kong

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text: HSBC Building (Hong Kong)

text: History[edit]

text: The first HSBC (then known as the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Company Limited) building was Wardley House, used as HSBC office between 1865 and 1882 on the present site. In 1864 the lease cost HKD 500 a month. After raising a capital of HKD 5 million, the bank opened its door in 1865.[6]

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text: Wardley House was subsequently demolished and replaced by a second HSBC building, that was completed in 1886.[7] The main feature of the second building design was the division of the structure into two almost separate buildings. The building on Queen's Road Central was in Victorian style with a verandah, colonnades and an octagonal dome, whereas the arcade which harmonised with the adjacent buildings was constructed on Des Voeux Road.

text: In 1934, the second building was demolished and a third design was erected. The new building opened in October 1935. The third design used part of the land of the old City Hall, and was built in a mixed Art Deco and Stripped Classical style. During the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, the building served as the government headquarters. It was the first building in Hong Kong to be fully air-conditioned. By the 1970s the bank had outgrown its headquarters; departments were scattered into offices all over Central Hong Kong, and it was obvious that such a "solution" to the space limitations could not continue indefinitely. In 1978 the bank decided to tear down its headquarters and rebuild it again.

text: The new building was finished on 18 November 1985. At the time, it was the most expensive building in the world (c.a.HK$5.2 billion, roughly US$668 million).

text: The first major addition to the building, designed by Hong Kong's One Space Ltd, was completed on 23 November 2006, in the form of a ground floor lobby that improves security access to the upper floors and creates a prestigious reception area. Its design and construction included the installation of the "Asian Story Wall", a multimedia installation consisting of twin banks of 30 seamless plasma screens (the largest installation of its kind in Hong Kong) displaying archived bank heritage and artworks.

text: The atrium of the HSBC building was the site of the Occupy Hong Kong protests which maintained a presence in the building from 15 October 2011 until their eviction in September 2012.[8]

text: Design[edit]

text: The new building was designed by the British architect Norman, Lord Foster and civil & structural engineers Ove Arup & Partners with service design by J. Roger Preston & Partners, and was constructed by Wimpey International.[9] From the concept to completion, it took seven years (1978–1985). The building is 180 metres high with 47 storeys and four basement levels. The building has a modular design consisting of five steel modules prefabricated in the UK by Scott Lithgow Shipbuilders near Glasgow, and shipped to Hong Kong. About 30,000 tons of steel and 4,500 tons of aluminium were used.

text: The original design was heavily inspired by the Douglas Gilling designed Qantas International Centre in Sydney (currently known as Suncorp Place).[10]

text: The new Lobby and its 2-part Asian Story Wall were designed by Greg Pearce, of One Space Limited. Pearce was also the Principal Architect of the Hong Kong Airport Express (MTR) station. Conceived as a minimalist glass envelope, the new lobby is designed to be deferential to Foster's structure and appears almost to be part of the original.

text: The building is also one of the few to not have elevators as the primary carrier of building traffic. Instead, elevators only stop every few floors, and floors are interconnected by escalators.

text: Characteristics[edit]

text: The main characteristic of HSBC Hong Kong headquarters is its absence of internal supporting structure.

text: Another notable feature is that natural sunlight is the major source of lighting inside the building. There is a bank of giant mirrors at the top of the atrium, which can reflect natural sunlight into the atrium and hence down into the plaza. Through the use of natural sunlight, this design helps to conserve energy. Additionally, sun shades are provided on the external facades to block direct sunlight going into the building and to reduce heat gain. Instead of fresh water, sea water is used as coolant for the air-conditioning system.

text: All flooring is made from lightweight movable panels, under which lies a comprehensive network of power, telecommunication, and air-conditioning systems. This design was to allow equipment such as computer terminals to be installed quickly and easily.

text: Because of the urgency to finish the project, the construction of the building relied heavily on off-site prefabrication; components were manufactured all over the world. For example, the structural steel came from Britain; the glass, aluminium cladding and flooring came from the United States while the service modules came from Japan.

text: The inverted 'va' segments of the suspension trusses spanning the construction at double-height levels is the most obvious characteristic of the building. It consists of eight groups of four aluminium-clad steel columns which ascend from the foundations up through the core structure, and five levels of triangular suspension trusses which are locked into these masts.

text: Feng shui[edit]

text: The early British settlers in Hong Kong had an interest in feng shui; thus, most of the earliest buildings in Hong Kong, and many buildings constructed thereafter, were built with the philosophies of feng shui in mind. The Chinese believe that those who have a direct view of a body of water—whether it is a river, a sea, or an ocean—are more likely to prosper than those who do not (water is strongly associated with wealth in feng shui). The HSBC building has a wide open area (the Statue Square) in front of it, with no other buildings blocking its view of Victoria Harbour; thus, it is considered to have "good feng shui".[14]

text: In the CBC Television series Doc Zone episode "Superstitious Minds",[15] Writer, Researcher & Associate Producer Tom Puchniak asserts that the design of the nearby Bank of China Building ignored feng shui principles, and created instant controversy by evoking two knife edges, one pointing towards the British Government House, another towards the HSBC building. After the Bank of China building opened, a series of mishaps occurred, including the death of the Governor,[16] and a downturn in the city's economy. It is alleged that HSBC installed two maintenance cranes in the shape of cannons on the roof, pointing directly at the Bank of China, to defend against the negative energy from the Bank of China building. According to feng shui master Paul Hung, this solved the problem, and HSBC experienced "no harmful results after that."[15]

text: Lion statues[edit]

text: When HSBC decided to build its third Headquarters at 1 Queen's Road Central, opened in 1935, it commissioned two bronze lions from Shanghai-based British sculptor W W Wagstaff (d 1977, aged 82). This commission was inspired by two earlier lions that had been ordered for the new Shanghai office opened in 1923. Cast by J W Singer & Sons in the English town of Frome, to a design by Henry Poole RA, these lions had quickly become part of the Shanghai scene, and passers-by would affectionately stroke the lions in the belief that power and money would rub off on them. They became known as Stephen and Stitt: an in-joke. Stephen was named for A G Stephen, formerly Manager Shanghai, and in 1923 the Chief Manager of HSBC, and G H Stitt, the then Manager Shanghai. Stephen is depicted roaring, Stitt quiescent, and again insiders said that this represented the characters of these two famous bankers.

text: Wagstaff worked with "Shanghai Arts and Crafts" foreman Chou Yin Hsiang who in an interview with John Loch of HSBC's house magazine "Group News" in June 1977[17] recalled that when he first joined Arts and Crafts he worked with Wagstaff for two years to make the lions, without having to learn a word of English: Wagstaff spoke perfect Shanghai dialect. Hunch-backed, Wagstaff was nicknamed "Lao Doo Pei", meaning "Old Hunchback". His son, inevitably, was called "Sau Doo Pei"—"Young Hunchback". Wagstaff had two sons—Don, killed in Naval service in the war, and Alex, killed while interned in Shanghai by the Japanese. Chou Yin Hsiang himself came to Hong Kong in 1935, and by 1977 was the proprietor of Jeh Hsing Metal Works—and still casting bronze for HSBC.

text: Like the Shanghai lions, the Hong Kong lions became objects of veneration, and focii of the Bank's perceived excellent feng shui. Young couples still bring their toddlers to stroke the paws and noses of the statues hoping for luck and prosperity.

text: When the 1935 building closed its doors for the last time on 26 June 1981 the Lions had been moved to the annexe on 19 June 1981. Demolition, by China Swiss Engineers, started on 6 July 1981. The lions were temporarily moved on 4 June 1982 to Statue Square, opposite the main entrance. As a mark of the respect the lions were held in, the move to Statue Square, and the move back in 1985, were accompanied by the chairman Sir Michael Sandberg and senior management of the Bank and the placement of the lions both temporarily and in their current locations was made only after extensive consultations with feng shui practitioners.

text: Their 4-year sojourn in the annexe and Statue Square aside, the lions have only left their positions as guardians of the Des Voeux Road entrance of the Bank once: they were confiscated by the Japanese and sent to Japan to be melted down. Luckily the war ended before this could happen, and the lions were recognised by an American sailor in a dockyard in Osaka in 1945. They were returned a few months later and restored to their original positions in October 1946.

text: The Hong Kong lions are also called Stephen and Stitt, and the Hong Kong Stephen has bullet or shrapnel scars in its left hind-quarters dating from the fighting in the Battle of Hong Kong.[18] When this pair of lions was used as the model for the pair commissioned for the new UK Headquarters of HSBC in 2002, Zambian-born New Zealand sculptor Mark Kennedy was asked not to reproduce these "war wounds" in the copies. They had to earn their own battle-scars.

text: The following is a list of bronze copies and re-casts of the HSBC lions:

text:
In China:

Shanghai (original) (1923) – sculpted by Henry Poole RA, cast by J W Stinger & Sons. The originals are held by the Shanghai Historic Museum (which currently has no permanent home) and are separately on display at the Museum's display room under the Oriental Pearl Tower (Stephen) and the Shanghai Banking Museum (Stitt), both in Lujiazui.
Hong Kong (1935) – modelled on Shanghai originals; sculpted by W W Wagstaff, cast by Shanghai Arts and Crafts.
Shanghai (replicas) (c. 1997) – copies of Shanghai originals, commissioned by the government-owned Shanghai Pudong Development Bank after it obtained the former HSBC building.
Shanghai (current) (2010) – copies of Hong Kong lions.

In the United Kingdom

London (2001) – copies of Hong Kong lions; cast by Bronze Age Foundry, Limehouse, at the direction of Mark Kennedy.[19]

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text: Various other HSBC branches throughout the world feature small-scaled replicas of these originals, with varying degrees of faithfulness. Other HSBC branches often feature guardian lions to different designs, such as Chinese guardian lions.

text: Lighting scheme[edit]

text: In 2003, the Hong Kong Tourism Board developed a harbour lighting plan called "A Symphony of Lights",[20] a large-scale multimedia show featuring lighting, laser, music, and occasionally special pyrotechnics effects during festivals, to promote tourism in Hong Kong. The show is based on the illumination of key buildings on the Hong Kong Island side, and is best viewed from the Kowloon side across the Victoria Harbour. The HSBC Hong Kong headquarters building is one of the participating buildings in the show. The building has been installed with 716 intelligent lighting units, including 450 Martin Professional Cyclo 03 colour changing fluorescent fixtures in the glass stairwells, Martin Professional Exterior 600's and Exterior 200 fixtures on five levels, 8 search lights, and over one kilometre of LED lighting around the top. Completed by mid-December 2003, the cost of installation is estimated to be HK$5.5 million.

text: Intelligent lighting is distributed across six sections of the building:

text:
Vertical Ladder Trusses
Exoskeleton: Inner + Outer
Refuge Floors
Northwest Stairwell
Eastern Stairwells
Roof Building Maintenance Units

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text: HSBC has always aimed to adopt a new lighting scheme because Foster did not pay much attention to the illumination of the building at nighttime.


document_title: Yellow River

question_text: what river in china is considered to be the cradle of agriculture

text: Yellow River

text: Name[edit]

text: Early Chinese literature including the Yu Gong or Tribute of Yu dating to the Warring States period (475–221 BC) refers to the Yellow River as simply 河 (Old Chinese: *C.gˤaj,[3] modern Chinese (Pinyin) Hé), a character that has come to mean "river" in modern usage. The first appearance of the name 黃河 (Old Chinese: *N-kʷˤaŋ C.gˤaj; Middle Chinese: Huang Ha[3]) is in the Book of Han written during the Eastern Han dynasty about the Western Han dynasty. The adjective "yellow" describes the perennial color of the muddy water in the lower course of the river, which arises from soil (loess) being carried downstream.

text: One of its older Mongolian names was the "Black River",[4] because the river runs clear before it enters the Loess Plateau, but the current name of the river among Inner Mongolians is Ȟatan Gol (Хатан гол, "Queen River").[5] In Mongolia itself, it is simply called the Šar Mörön (Шар мөрөн, "Yellow River").[6]

text: In Qinghai, the river's Tibetan name is "River of the Peacock" (Tibetan: རྨ་ཆུ།, Ma Chu; Chinese: s 玛曲, t 瑪曲, p Mǎ Qū')

text: History[edit]

text: Dynamics[edit]

text: The Yellow River is one of several rivers that are essential for China's very existence. At the same time, however, it has been responsible for several deadly floods, including the only natural disasters in recorded history to have killed more than a million people. The deadliest was a 1332–33 flood that killed 7 million people. Close behind is the 1887 flood, which killed anywhere from 900,000 to 2 million people, and a 1931 flood (part of a massive number of floods that year) that killed 1–4 million people.[7]

text: The cause of the floods is the large amount of fine-grained loess carried by the river from the Loess Plateau, which is continuously deposited along the bottom of its channel. The sedimentation causes natural dams to slowly accumulate. These subaqueous dams were unpredictable and generally undetectable. Eventually, the enormous amount of water has to find a new way to the sea, forcing it to take the path of least resistance. When this happens, it bursts out across the flat North China Plain, sometimes taking a new channel and inundating any farmland, cities or towns in its path. The traditional Chinese response of building higher and higher levees along the banks sometimes also contributed to the severity of the floods: When flood water did break through the levees, it could no longer drain back into the river bed as it would after a normal flood as the river bed was sometimes now higher than the surrounding countryside. These changes could cause the river's mouth to shift as much as 480 km (300 mi), sometimes reaching the ocean to the north of Shandong Peninsula and sometimes to the south.[8]

text: Another historical source of devastating floods is the collapse of upstream ice dams in Inner Mongolia with an accompanying sudden release of vast quantities of impounded water. There have been 11 such major floods in the past century, each causing tremendous loss of life and property. Nowadays, explosives dropped from aircraft are used to break the ice dams before they become dangerous.[9]

text: Before modern dams came to China, the Yellow River was extremely prone to flooding. In the 2,540 years from 595 BC to 1946 AD, the Yellow River has been reckoned to have flooded 1,593 times, shifting its course 26 times noticeably and nine times severely.[10] These floods include some of the deadliest natural disasters ever recorded. Before modern disaster management, when floods occurred, some of the population might initially die from drowning but then many more would suffer from the ensuing famine and spread of diseases.[11]

text: Ancient times[edit]

text: In Chinese mythology, the giant Kua Fu drained the Yellow River and the Wei River to quench his burning thirst as he pursued the Sun.[12] Historical documents from the Spring and Autumn period[13] and Qin Dynasty[14] indicate that the Yellow River at that time flowed considerably north of its present course. These accounts show that after the river passed Luoyang, it flowed along the border between Shanxi and Henan Provinces, then continued along the border between Hebei and Shandong before emptying into Bohai Bay near present-day Tianjin. Another outlet followed essentially the present course.[10]

text: The river left these paths in 602 BC[13] and shifted completely south of the Shandong Peninsula.[10] Sabotage of dikes, canals, and reservoirs and deliberate flooding of rival states became a standard military tactic during the Warring States period.[15] As the Yellow River valley was the major entryway to the Guanzhong area and the state of Qin from the North China Plain, Qin heavily fortified the Hangu Pass; it saw numerous battles and was also an important chokepoint protecting the Han capitals of Chang'an and Luoyang. Major flooding in AD 11 is credited with the downfall of the short-lived Xin dynasty, and another flood in AD 70 returned the river north of Shandong on essentially its present course.[10]

text: Medieval times[edit]

text: From around the beginning of the 3rd century, the importance of the Hangu Pass was reduced, with the major fortifications and military bases moved upriver to Tongguan. In AD 923, the desperate Later Liang general Duan Ning again broke the dikes, flooding 1,000 square miles (2,600 km2) in a failed attempt to protect his realm's capital from the Later Tang. A similar proposal from the Song engineer Li Chun concerning flooding the lower reaches of the river to protect the central plains from the Khitai was overruled in 1020: the Treaty of Shanyuan between the two states had expressly forbidden the Song from establishing new moats or changing river courses.[16]

text: Breaches occurred regardless: one at Henglong in 1034 divided the course in three and repeatedly flooded the northern regions of Dezhou and Bozhou.[16] The Song worked for five years futilely attempting to restore the previous course – using over 35,000 employees, 100,000 conscripts, and 220,000 tons of wood and bamboo in a single year[16] – before abandoning the project in 1041. The more sluggish river then occasioned a breach at Shanghu that sent the main outlet north towards Tianjin in 1048[10] and by 1194 blocked the mouth of the Huai River.[17] The buildup of silt deposits was such that even after the Yellow River later shifted its course, the Huai could no longer flow along its historic course, but instead, its water pools into Hongze Lake and then runs southward toward the Yangtze River.[citation needed]

text: A flood in 1344 returned the Yellow River south of Shandong. The Yuan dynasty was waning, and the emperor forced enormous teams to build new embankments for the river. The terrible conditions helped to fuel rebellions that led to the founding of the Ming dynasty.[8] The course changed again in 1391 when the river flooded from Kaifeng to Fengyang in Anhui. It was finally stabilized by the eunuch Li Xing during the public works projects following the 1494 flood.[18] The river flooded many times in the 16th century, including in 1526, 1534, 1558, and 1587. Each flood affected the river's lower course.[18]

text: The 1642 flood was man-made, caused by the attempt of the Ming governor of Kaifeng to use the river to destroy the peasant rebels under Li Zicheng who had been besieging the city for the past six months.[19] He directed his men to break the dikes in an attempt to flood the rebels, but destroyed his own city instead: the flood and the ensuing famine and plague are estimated to have killed 300,000 of the city's previous population of 378,000.[20] The once-prosperous city was nearly abandoned until its rebuilding under the Kangxi Emperor in the Qing Dynasty.

text: Recent times[edit]

text: Between 1851 and 1855,[10][17][18] it returned to the north amid the floods that provoked the Nien and Taiping Rebellions. The 1887 flood has been estimated to have killed between 900,000 and 2 million people,[21] and is the second-worst natural disaster in history (excluding famines and epidemics). The Yellow River more or less adopted its present course during the 1897 flood.[17][22]

text: The 1931 flood killed an estimated 1,000,000 to 4,000,000,[21] and is the worst natural disaster recorded (excluding famines and epidemics).

text: On 9 June 1938, during the Second Sino-Japanese War, Nationalist troops under Chiang Kai-shek broke the levees holding back the river near the village of Huayuankou in Henan, causing what has been called by Canadian historian, Diana Lary, a "war-induced natural disaster". The goal of the operation was to stop the advancing Japanese troops by following a strategy of "using water as a substitute for soldiers" (yishui daibing). The 1938 flood of an area covering 54,000 km2 (20,800 sq mi) took some 500,000 to 900,000 Chinese lives, along with an unknown number of Japanese soldiers. The flood prevented the Japanese Army from taking Zhengzhou, on the southern bank of the Yellow River, but did not stop them from reaching their goal of capturing Wuhan, which was the temporary seat of the Chinese government and straddles the Yangtze River.[23]

text: Geography[edit]

text: This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

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text: According to the China Exploration and Research Society, the source of the Yellow River is at 34° 29' 31.1" N, 96° 20' 24.6" E in the Bayan Har Mountains near the eastern edge of the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. The source tributuaries drain into Gyaring Lake and Ngoring Lake on the western edge of Golog Prefecture high in the Bayan Har Mountains of Qinghai. In the Zoige Basin along the boundary with Gansu, the Yellow River loops northwest and then northeast before turning south, creating the "Ordos Loop", and then flows generally eastward across the North China Plain to the Gulf of Bohai, draining a basin of 752,443 square kilometers (290,520 sq mi) which nourishes 140 million people with drinking water and irrigation.[24]

text: The Yellow River passes through seven present-day provinces and two autonomous regions, namely (from west to east) Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, and Shandong. Major cities along the present course of the Yellow River include (from west to east) Lanzhou, Yinchuan, Wuhai, Baotou, Luoyang, Zhengzhou, Kaifeng, and Jinan. The current mouth of the Yellow River is located at Kenli County, Shandong.

text: The river is commonly divided into three stages. These are roughly the northeast of the Tibetan Plateau, the Ordos Loop, and the North China Plain. However, different scholars have different opinions on how the three stages are divided.[citation needed] This article adopts the division used by the Yellow River Conservancy Commission.[25]

text: Upper reaches[edit]

text: This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text: The upper reaches of the Yellow River constitute a segment starting from its source in the Bayan Har Mountains and ending at Hekou Town (Togtoh County), Inner Mongolia just before it turns sharply to the south. This segment has a total length of 3,472 kilometers (2,157 mi) and total basin area of 386,000 square kilometers (149,000 sq mi), 51.4% of the total basin area. Along this length, the elevation of the Yellow River drops 3,496 meters (11,470 ft), with an average grade of 0.10%.

text: The source section flows mainly through pastures, swamps, and knolls between the Bayan Har Mountains, and the Anemaqen (Amne Machin) Mountains in Qinghai. The river water is clear and flows steadily. Crystal clear lakes are characteristic of this section. The two main lakes along this section are Lake Zhaling (扎陵湖) and Lake Eling (鄂陵湖), with capacities of 4.7 billion and 10.8 billion m³ (166 and 381 billion ft3), respectively. At elevations over 4,290 m (14,070 ft)) above sea level they are the two largest plateau freshwater lakes nationwide. A significant amount of land in the Yellow River's source area has been designated as the Sanjiangyuan ("'Three Rivers' Sources") National Nature Reserve, to protect the source region of the Yellow River, the Yangtze, and the Mekong.

text: Flowing east at the eastern edge of the Amne Machin Mountains, the Yellow River enters Maqu County in Gansu. Here, the river skirts through the high-altitude peat bog known as the Zoigê Wetlands and makes a sharp turn towards the northwest forming the border between Maqu and Zoigê County in Sichuan. Flowing now along the northern edge of Amne Machin, the river reenters Qinghai and gradually curves north towards the Longyang Gorge at Xinghai.

text: The valley section stretches from Longyang Gorge in Qinghai to Qingtong Gorge in Gansu. Steep cliffs line both sides of the river. The water bed is narrow and the average drop is large, so the flow in this section is extremely turbulent and fast. There are 20 gorges in this section, the most famous of these being the Longyang, Jishi, Liujia, Bapan, and Qingtong gorges. The flow conditions in this section makes it the best location for hydroelectric plants. The Yellow River exits Qinghai for the second and final time in these gorges and enters Gansu for the second time just before Liujia Gorge. Downstream from the Yanguo Gorge, the provincial capital of Lanzhou is built upon the Yellow River's banks. The Yellow River flows northeasterly out of Gansu and into Ningxia before the Qingtong Gorge.

text: After emerging from the Qingtong Gorge, the river comes into a section of vast alluvial plains, the Yinchuan Plain and Hetao Plain. In this section, the regions along the river are mostly deserts and grasslands, with very few tributaries. The flow is slow. The Hetao Plain has a length of 900 km (560 mi) and width of 30 to 50 km (19 to 31 mi). It is historically the most important irrigation plain along the Yellow River.

text: Middle reaches[edit]

text: The Ordos Loop formed by an enormous twist of the Yellow River, beginning at Zhongning County in Ningxia and ending with a drastic eastward turn at its confluence with the Wei at Tongguan in Shaanxi. However, the official division for the middle reaches of the river run from Hekou in Togtoh County, Inner Mongolia, to Zhengzhou, Henan. The middle reaches are 1,206 km (749 mi) long, with a basin area of 344,000 square kilometers (133,000 sq mi), 45.7% of the total, with a total elevation drop of 890 m (2,920 ft), an average drop of 0.074%. There are 30 large tributaries along the middle reaches, and the water flow is increased by 43.5% on this stage. The middle reaches contribute 92% of the river's silts.

text: The middle stream of the Yellow River passes through the Loess Plateau, where substantial erosion takes place. The large amount of mud and sand discharged into the river makes the Yellow River the most sediment-laden river in the world. The highest recorded annual level of silts discharged into the Yellow River is 3.91 billion tons in 1933. The highest silt concentration level was recorded in 1977 at 920 kg/m³ (57.4 lb/ft3). These sediments later deposit in the slower lower reaches of the river, elevating the river bed and creating the famous "river above ground". From Hekou to Yumenkou, the river passes through the longest series of continuous valleys on its main course, collectively called the Jinshan Valley. The abundant hydrodynamic resources stored in this section make it the second most suitable area to build hydroelectric power plants. The famous Hukou Waterfall is in the lower part of this valley on the border of Shanxi and Shaanxi.

text: Lower reaches[edit]

text: In the lower reaches, from Zhengzhou, Henan to its mouth, a distance of 786 km (488 mi), the river is confined to a levee-lined course as it flows to the northeast across the North China Plain before emptying into the Bohai Sea. The basin area in this stage is only 23,000 square kilometers (8,900 sq mi), a mere 3% of the total, because few tributaries add to the flow in this stage; nearly all rivers to the south drain into the Huai River, whereas those to the north drain into the Hai River. The total drop in elevation of the lower reaches is 93.6 m (307 ft), with an average grade of 0.012%.

text: The silts received from the middle reaches form sediments here, elevating the river bed. During 2,000 years of levee construction, excessive sediment deposits have raised the riverbed several meters above the surrounding ground.[dubious – discuss]

text: At Kaifeng, Henan, the Yellow River is 10 meters (33 ft) above the ground level.[26]

text: Tributaries[edit]

text: Tributaries of the Yellow River listed from its source to its mouth include:

text:
White River
Black River
Huang Shui

Datong River

Daxia River
Tao River
Zuli River
Qingshui River
Dahei River
Kuye River
Wuding River
Fen River
Wei River (the Wei River is the largest of these tributaries)
Luo River
Qin River
Dawen River
Kuo River

text: Characteristics[edit]

text: The Yellow River is notable for the large amount of silt it carries—1.6 billion tons annually at the point where it descends from the Loess Plateau. If it is running to the sea with sufficient volume, 1.4 billion tons are carried to the sea annually.[citation needed] One estimate gives 34 kilograms of silt per cubic meter as opposed to 10 for the Colorado and 1 for the Nile.[10]

text: Its average discharge is said to be 2,110 cubic meters per second (32,000 for the Yangtze), with a maximum of 25,000 and minimum of 245. However, since 1972, it often runs dry before it reaches the sea. The low volume is due to increased agricultural irrigation, increased by a factor of five since 1950. Water diverted from the river as of 1999 served 140 million people and irrigated 74,000 km² (48,572 mi²) of land.[24] The Yellow River delta totals 8,000 square kilometers (3,090 mi²). However, with the decrease in silt reaching the sea, it has been reported to be shrinking slightly each year since 1996 through erosion.[27]

text: The highest volume occurs during the rainy season from July to October, when 60% of the annual volume of the river flows. Maximum demand for irrigation is needed between March and June. In order to capture excess water for use when needed and for flood control and electricity generation, several dams have been built, but their expected life is limited due to the high silt load. A proposed South–North Water Transfer Project involves several schemes to divert water from the Yangtze River: one in the western headwaters of the rivers where they are closest to one another, another from the upper reaches of the Han River, and a third using the route of the old Grand Canal.[citation needed]

text: Due to its heavy load of silt the Yellow River is a depositing stream – that is, it deposits part of its carried burden of soil in its bed in stretches where it is flowing slowly. These deposits elevate the riverbed which flows between natural levees in its lower reaches. Should a flood occur, the river may break out of the levees into the surrounding lower flood plain and take a new channel. Historically this has occurred about once every hundred years. In modern times, considerable effort has been made to strengthen levees and control floods.[citation needed]

text: Hydroelectric power dams[edit]

text: Below is the list of hydroelectric power stations built on the Yellow River, arranged according to the first year of operation (in brackets):

text:
Sanmenxia Dam (1960; Sanmenxia, Henan)
Sanshenggong Dam (1966)
Qingtong Gorge hydroelectric power station (1968; Qingtongxia, Ningxia)
Liujiaxia Dam (Liujia Gorge) (1974; Yongjing County, Gansu)
Lijiaxia Dam (1997) (Jainca County, Qinghai)
Yanguoxia Dam (Yanguo Gorge) hydroelectric power station (1975; Yongjing County, Gansu)
Tianqiao Dam (1977)
Bapanxia Dam (Bapan Gorge) (1980; Xigu District, Lanzhou, Gansu)
Longyangxia Dam (1992; Gonghe County, Qinghai)
Da Gorge hydroelectric power station (1998)
Li Gorge hydroelectric power station (1999)
Wanjiazhai Dam (1999; Pianguan County, Shaanxi and Inner Mongolia)
Xiaolangdi Dam (2001) (Jiyuan, Henan)
Laxiwa Dam (2010) (Guide County, Qinghai)
Yangqu Dam (2015) (Xinghai County, Qinghai)
Maerdang Dam (2016) (Maqên County, Qinghai)

text: As reported in 2000, the 7 largest hydro power plants (Longyangxia, Lijiaxia, Liujiaxia, Yanguoxia, Bapanxia, Daxia and Qinglongxia) had the total installed capacity of 5,618 MW.[28]

text: Crossings[edit]

text: The main bridges and ferries by the province names in the order of downstream to upstream are:[29][30][31]

text: Shandong

text:
Dongying Yellow River Bridge
Shengli Yellow River Bridge (Dongying)
Lijin Yellow River Bridge (Dongying)
Binzhou Yellow River Road-Railway Bridge
Binzhou Yellow River Highway Bridge
Binzhou–Laiwu Expressway Binzhou Yellow River Bridge (Binzhou–Zibo)
Huiqing Yellow River Bridge (Binzhou–Zibo)
Jiyang Yellow River Bridge (Jinan)
G20 Qingdao–Yinchuan Expressway Jinan Yellow River Bridge (Jinan)
Jinan Yellow River Bridge
Luokou Yellow River Railway Bridge (Jinan)
Jinan Jianbang Yellow River Bridge
Beijing–Shanghai High-speed Railway Jinan Yellow River Bridge (Jinan–Dezhou)
Beijing–Taipei Expressway Jinan Yellow River Bridge (Jinan–Dezhou)
Beijing–Shanghai Railway Jinan Yellow River New Bridge (Jinan–Dezhou)
Pingyin Yellow River Bridge (Jinan-Liaocheng)

text: Shandong–Henan

text:
Beijing–Kowloon Railway Sunkou Yellow River Bridge (Jining–Puyang)
Juancheng Yellow River Highway Bridge (Heze–Puyang)
Dongming Yellow River Highway Bridge (Heze–Puyang)

text: Henan

text:
Kaifeng Yellow River Bridge (Kaifeng)
Zhengzhou Yellow River Bridge (Zhengzhou)

text: Shanxi–Henan

text: Sanmen Yellow River Bridge (Sanmenxia)

text: Shaanxi–Henan

text: Hancheng Yumenkou Yellow River Bridge

text: Ningxia

text: Yinchuan Yellow River Bridge (Yinchuan)

text: Inner Mongolia

text: Baotou Yellow River Bridge (Baotou)

text: Gansu

text:
Lanzhou Yellow River Bridge
Zhongshan Bridge (Lanzhou)

text: Qinghai

text: Dari Yellow River Bridge

text: Aquaculture[edit]

text: The Yellow River is generally less suitable for aquaculture than the rivers of central and southern China, such as the Yangtze or the Pearl River, but aquaculture is also practiced in some areas along the Yellow River. An important aquaculture area is the riverside plain in Xingyang City, upstream from Zhengzhou. Since the development of fish ponds started in Xingyang's riverside Wangcun Town in 1986, the pond systems in Wangcun have grown to the total size of 15,000 mu (10 km2), making the town the largest aquaculture center in North China.[32]

text: A variety of the Chinese softshell turtle popular with China's gourmets is called the Yellow River Turtle (黄河鳖). Nowadays most of the Yellow River Turtles eaten in China's restaurants comes from turtle farms, which may or may not be near the Yellow River. In 2007, construction started in Wangcun on a large farm for raising this turtle variety. With the capacity for raising 5 million turtles a year, the facility was expected to become Henan's largest farm of this kind.[33]

text: Pollution[edit]

text: On 25 November 2008, Tania Branigan of The Guardian filed a report "China's Mother River: the Yellow River", claiming that severe pollution has made one-third of China's Yellow River unusable even for agricultural or industrial use, due to factory discharges and sewage from fast-expanding cities.[34] The Yellow River Conservancy Commission had surveyed more than 8,384 mi (13,493 km) of the river in 2007 and said 33.8% of the river system registered worse than "level five" according to the criteria used by the UN Environment Program.[dubious – discuss] Level five is unfit for drinking, aquaculture, industrial use, or even agriculture. The report said waste and sewage discharged into the system last year totaled 4.29b tons. Industry and manufacturing made up 70% of the discharge into the river with households accounting for 23% and just over 6% coming from other sources.[which?]

text: In culture[edit]

text: In ancient times, it was believed that the Yellow River flowed from Heaven as a continuation of the Milky Way. In a Chinese legend, Zhang Qian is said to have been commissioned to find the source of the Yellow River. After sailing up-river for many days, he saw a girl spinning and a cow herd. Upon asking the girl where he was, she presented him with her shuttle with instructions to show it to the astrologer Yen Chün-p'ing. When he returned, the astrologer recognized it as the shuttle of the Weaving Girl (Vega), and, moreover, said that at the time Zhang received the shuttle, he had seen a wandering star interpose itself between the Weaving Girl and the cow herd (Altair).[35]

text: The provinces of Hebei and Henan derive their names from the Yellow River. Their names mean, respectively, "North of the River" and "South of the River".

text: Traditionally, it is believed that the Chinese civilization originated in the Yellow River basin. The Chinese refer to the river as "the Mother River" and "the cradle of the Chinese civilization". During the long history of China, the Yellow River has been considered a blessing as well as a curse and has been nicknamed both "China's Pride" (simplified Chinese: 中国的骄傲; traditional Chinese: 中國的驕傲; pinyin: Zhōngguóde Jiāo'ào) and "China's Sorrow"[36] (simplified Chinese: 中国的痛; traditional Chinese: 中國的痛; pinyin: Zhōngguóde Tòng).

text: Sometimes the Yellow River is poetically called the "Muddy Flow" (simplified Chinese: 浊流; traditional Chinese: 濁流; pinyin: Zhuó Liú). The Chinese idiom "when the Yellow River flows clear" is used to refer to an event that will never happen and is similar to the English expression "when pigs fly".

text: "The Yellow River running clear" was reported as a good omen during the reign of the Yongle Emperor, along with the appearance of such auspicious legendary beasts as qilin (an African giraffe brought to China by a Bengal embassy aboard Zheng He's ships in 1414) and zouyu (not positively identified) and other strange natural phenomena.[37]


document_title: The Needle and the Damage Done

question_text: who was the needle and the damage done written about

text: The Needle and the Damage Done

text:
"The Needle and the Damage Done"

Song by Neil Young

from the album Harvest

Released
February 1, 1972

Recorded
Royce Hall, UCLA, 30 January 1971

Genre
Folk rock

Length
2:03

Label
Reprise

Songwriter(s)
Neil Young

Producer(s)
Neil Young
Henry Lewy[1]

Harvest track listing

"Alabama"
(8)
"The Needle and the Damage Done"
(9)
"Words (Between the Lines of Age)"
(10)

text: "The Needle and the Damage Done" is a song by Neil Young that describes the destruction caused by the heroin addiction of musicians he knew. Though not specifically about him, the song was inspired by the heroin addiction of his friend and Crazy Horse bandmate Danny Whitten. It previews the theme of the Tonight's the Night album that reflects Young's grief over the heroin overdose and death of both Whitten and Bruce Berry, a roadie for Young and Crazy Horse.

text: "The Needle and the Damage Done" first appeared on the Harvest album in 1972. Rather than rerecording it, he selected a live version from January 1971 that had him singing and playing acoustic guitar. It appeared on the compilation albums Decade and Greatest Hits. On the handwritten liner notes included in Decade, Young had this to say about the song: "I am not a preacher, but drugs killed a lot of great men."

text: It appeared on the 2007 album Live at Massey Hall 1971. The album captured Young's introduction of his song thus:

text: Ever since I left Canada, about five years ago or so... and moved down south... found out a lot of things that I didn't know when I left. Some of 'em are good, and some of 'em are bad. Got to see a lot of great musicians before they happened... before they became famous... y'know, when they were just gigging. Five and six sets a night... things like that. And I got to see a lot of, um, great musicians who nobody ever got to see. For one reason or another. But... strangely enough, the real good ones... that you never got to see was... 'cause of, ahhm, heroin. An' that started happening over an' over. Then it happened to someone that everyone knew about. So I just wrote a little song.

text: Cover versions[edit]

text: Bands that have covered this song on studio albums include Our Lady Peace, Green River, Duran Duran, Lior, Simple Minds, and The Pretenders; Punk rock band The Bronx recorded a cover which can be found as a b-side on the "False Alarm" single.

text: Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea has covered it while on tour in 1993 for the temporary departure of John Frusciante from their band.

text: Tori Amos covered the song during her "Strange Little Tour" in 2001.

text: Cross Canadian Ragweed's Cody Canada performed the song acoustically on their 2006 release Back to Tulsa - Live and Loud at Cain's Ballroom.

text: Alternative metal band Seether covered it during a performance on Last Call with Carson Daly.

text: Ashley Cleveland covers this song on her 2002 album Second Skin.

text: Irish singer Andrea Corr covered it during her AOL Sessions on July 19, 2007 in support of her solo album Ten Feet High.

text: English folk singer Laura Marling covered it twice on her August 2008 tour of Australia, and on several dates during her 2010 tour of England, Marling has since recorded the cover on a limited edition 7".

text: English singer Pete Doherty covered it during a gig at the French festival Eurockéennes de Belfort in 2009 and at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark in July 2009 as well as at the Belgian festival Lokerse Feesten in August 2009.

text: Pearl Jam's lead singer Eddie Vedder covered the song at a Pearl Jam show on August 23, 2009, at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois. He dedicated it to Michael Jackson, to whom he grew up listening. Pearl Jam also covered the song during their Backspacer tour.

text: Dave Matthews covered the song frequently in his live performances during 2010, including a tribute concert for Young, when he was honored as the MusiCares Person of the Year (also in 2010).

text: Jewel covered the song on The Howard Stern Show on May 24, 2010.

text: Marcy Playground covered the song on their 2012 album, Lunch, Recess & Detention.

text: Grindcore band Cloud Rat covered the song on their 2013 Moksha.

text: Gregg Allman and Warren Haynes covered the song the first night of the 2013 Warren Haynes Christmas Jam, as well as in the second night of same year's Crossroads Guitar Festival.

text: Jake Bugg recorded an acoustic cover of the song on the late 2013.

text: References in popular culture[edit]

text:
The song was the inspiration for The Sisters of Mercy's first 7" single, "The Damage Done" (1980).
The title was also used as the album title for the second installment of the Nirvana Outcesticide bootleg series (1995).
In the ninth episode of the second season of NewsRadio Jimmy remarks to Dave that he's "...seen the coffee and the damage done," a reference to Dave's coffee addiction.
Rolling Stone's cover story on Alice in Chains frontman Layne Staley, a known heroin addict, bears the title (Issue 727).
A reference to its title can be found in the song "Understanding in a Car Crash" on the album Full Collapse (2001) by Thursday.
A fourth season episode of Homicide: Life on the Street concerning the fallout from a drug war was titled "The Damage Done."
"Song to Say Goodbye" from the Placebo album Meds (2006) includes the lyrical reference "your needle and your damage done."
In 1994, several prison guards in Idaho were accused of playing this song to taunt death-row inmates during a scheduled lethal injection.[2]
A reference to the title appears in the song "Genetic Design For Dying" from Aiden's album Nightmare Anatomy (2005).
In 1997, the Skylab remix of the Depeche Mode song "Home" was titled "Home (The Noodles & The Damage Done)."
In a 2012 episode of New Girl (TV Series), "Bully," Max Greenfield's character Schmidt references the song, saying "Schmiddle and the damage done. Yo Neil Young." to his lover.
A 2002 episode of Will & Grace is titled "The Needle and the Omelet's Done," in reference to the title of this song.
British Artist Pete Fowler's August 2013 solo exhibition, at Beach London Gallery, of cross-stich embroidery was titled "The Needle and The Damage Done."
The title of this song was used by former Heroes del Silencio singer Enrique Bunbury in his 2009 album Las Consecuencias in the song "Los Habitantes."
A horror novel called MILK-BLOOD, based on this song's lyrics, was published in June 2014. [3]