Wuding River

The Wuding River begins in the Ordos Desert in Shaanxi Province, Inner Mongolia and flows south into loess canyons and farmland. After around 100 miles it flows into the great Yellow River. The Wuding has its own tributaries, such as the Dali River, Hailiutu River, Hanjiang River, and the Danjiang River. The course of the river roughly parallels the northern route of the ancient Silk Road, now the National Highway 210.

The river's name means "winding" or "unstable" or "capricious" or "without a fixed course". This relates to its shifting course during classical times. The river area was much contested in classical times, and many battles were fought along and around it. On its early northern reaches stood the 'White City' of Tongwancheng, the main Hun capital on the non-Chinese side of the Great Wall of China. An ancient 9th century battle poem is set on the banks of the river - Chen Tao's Journey to Longxi describes a warrior dying on the river bank, wherafter his lover only sees him in her dreams...

"Have pity on the white skeletons of the Wuding River, for they are men now only in the dreams of young women."

The river served as a military boundary into the warlord period of Chinese history, when opium replaced cotton as the crop on the river's fertile loess farmland, and into the modern communist period.

The river currently carries very high levels of silt due to the arid climate in its loess canyons and gulleys, and over the last 30 years extensive effort has been put into preventing erosion on the upper reaches of the river, so as to prevent coarse sediment from entering the Yellow River. Terraces, re-forestation, planting and control dams have all been tried, with considerable success.

The river and its culture gave rise to the bardic folk song tradition of daoqing. By the late 19th and 20th centuries, this had taken the form of large troupes of blind storytellers and musicians. For more on this tradition see: "Blind Bards of The Wuding", in China Pictorial Nov 2006.

v t e Major rivers of China
Yangtze River system	Yalong River Min River Dadu River Qingyi River Tuo River Jialing River Fu River Qu River Wu River Hanshui River Qing River Chishui River Xiao River Xiang River Zi River Yuan River Lishui River Gan River Fu River Xin River Qingyi Jiang Qinhuai River Huangpu River
Yellow River system	Black River Daxia River Tao River Qingshui River Wuding River Fen River Wei River Jing River Luo River (Henan) Luo River (Shaanxi) Qin River
Pearl River system	North River East River Han River Mei River Ting River West River Yujiang River Yong River Xun River Qian River Hongshui River Nanpan River Beipan River Rong River Gui River
Heilong River system	Songhua River 2nd Songhua River Nen River Mudan River Ussuri River Argun River
Huai River system	Guo River Ying River Shiguan River
Other major rivers	Hai River Chaobai River Yongding River Hutuo River Liao River Tarim River Karatash River Ili River Shule River Tumen River Yalu River Luan River Red River Minjiang River Longjiang River Lancang River Beilun River Nu River Lion Spring River Elephant Spring River Yarlung Tsangpo River (Horse Spring River) Nyang River Subansiri River Irtysh River
Major canals	Grand Canal of China Lingqu Canal North Jiangsu Main Irrigation Canal

Wuding River

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