Natural barriers allowed the Chinese civilisation to not have to worry about invaders and it also allowed them to create a strong country. For centuries China was almost completely isolated from the other centers of civilisation by mountains, hot deserts, steamy jungles and high flowing seas.

To the north and west of Ancient China were two of the world’s largest deserts: the Gobi Desert and the Taklamakan Desert. These deserts also provided borders that kept the Chinese isolated from the rest of the world. This is why the Great Wall of China was built to protect the Chinese from these northern invaders.

Perhaps the two most important geographical features of Ancient China were the two major rivers that flowed through central China: the Yellow River to the north and the Yangtze River to the south. These major rivers were a great source of fresh water, food, fertile soil, and transportation.

The mighty Yellow River has earned the name “China’s sorrow” for its tendency to flood, with devastating consequences, over the centuries. The large amount of sediment is what gives the river its yellow colour.

What does it tell us about life in ancient China? The people of China gave Yu the title “the Great” because he worked hard to control floods. The Shang Dynasty. The Shang dynasty began in 1600 BC and lasted until 1050 BC.

Yu the Great (大禹) (c. 2123–2025 BC) was a legendary king in ancient China who was famed for his introduction of flood control, his establishment of the Xia dynasty which inaugurated dynastic rule in China, and his upright moral character.

Causes of floods Hu Xiao from the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) indicated that the rains were caused by increased vapors arising from the Indian and Pacific oceans. Some experts claim climate change is partly to blame and such events may become more frequent in the future.

Intense rainfall and severe flooding that has battered China since early June 2020, has affected tens of millions of people and left at least 140 dead or missing. The Three Gorges Dam that spans the Yangtze River has been put to the test in terms of its ability to control floods along Asia’s longest river.

850,000 to 4,000,000

One of the major objectives of the Three Gorges Dam project was to alleviate flooding on the lower Yangtze. The dam proved effective during the extraordinarily rainy summer of 2010 by holding back much of the resultant floodwaters and thus minimizing the impact of flooding downstream.