Wei River

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The Wei River (Simplified Chinese:渭河; pinyin: Wei He; Wade-Giles: Wei Ho) is a river in west-central China and is the largest tributary of the Yellow River.

The source of the Wei River is close to Weiyuan County in Gansu province. Weiyuan (渭源) literally means "Wei's source". At its source, it is less than 200km from the Yellow River at Lanzhou. However, due to the sharp turn north the Yellow River takes in Lanzhou, the Wei and the Yellow Rivers do not meet for more than 2000 km further along the Yellow River's course. In a direct line, its source lies 700 km east of the main city it passes, Xi'an in the Shaanxi province. The length of the river is 818 km and the area drained covers 135.000 km²

Its valley was one of the early cradles of Chinese civilisation, along which the capitals of the Qin, (Xianyang), Han and Tang Dynasties were situated. The area in Dingxi City, Gansu Province, around its headwaters, has numerous stone age sites from various early cultures.

In September of 2003 extensive rainfall led to flooding that caused over 30 fatalities, and temporarily displaced over 300,000 persons.[1]

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