Jialu River ( zh, s=贾鲁河) is a river in

Henan Henan; alternatively Honan is a province in Central China. Henan is home to many heritage sites, including Yinxu, the ruins of the final capital of the Shang dynasty () and the Shaolin Temple. Four of the historical capitals of China, Lu ...

, China. It originates in Xinmi, and flows northeast to

Zhengzhou Zhengzhou is the capital of Henan, China. Located in northern Henan, it is one of the nine National central city, national central cities in China, and serves as the political, economic, technological, and educational center of the province. Th ...

. From there, it flows southeast and passes through Weishi,

Fugou Fugou County () is a county of east-central Henan province, China. It is under the administration of Zhoukou Zhoukou ( zh, s=周口 , p=Zhōukǒu, w=Chou-k’ou; Postal romanization, postal: Chowkow) is a prefecture-level city in eastern Hen ...

and Xihua counties, eventually joining the

Ying River The Ying River () is the largest tributary of the Huai River with its origin in Henan Province, People's Republic of China. From Zhoukou City in Henan, the river flows through Fuyang City in Anhui Province then empties into the Huai River at Zhe ...

, the largest tributary of the

Huai River The Huai River, formerly romanized as the Hwai, is a major river in East China, about long with a drainage area of . It is located about midway between the Yellow River and Yangtze River, the two longest rivers and largest drainage basins ...

, at

Zhoukou Zhoukou ( zh, s=周口 , p=Zhōukǒu, w=Chou-k’ou; Postal romanization, postal: Chowkow) is a prefecture-level city in eastern Henan province of China, province, China. It borders Zhumadian to the southwest, Xuchang and Luohe to the west, Ka ...

. Much of Jialu River's course is artificially created. Parts of the river overlap with the Hong Canal () of the Spring and Autumn and

Warring States The Warring States period in Chinese history (221 BC) comprises the final two and a half centuries of the Zhou dynasty (256 BC), which were characterized by frequent warfare, bureaucratic and military reforms, and struggles for gre ...

periods, which linked the

Yellow River The Yellow River, also known as Huanghe, is the second-longest river in China and the List of rivers by length, sixth-longest river system on Earth, with an estimated length of and a Drainage basin, watershed of . Beginning in the Bayan H ...

basin to the Huai River basin. During Sui, Tang and

Song A song is a musical composition performed by the human voice. The voice often carries the melody (a series of distinct and fixed pitches) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs have a structure, such as the common ABA form, and are usu ...

dynasties, it formed part of the Grand Canal, and was vital for transporting food to the empire's capitals. This stretch of the canal was abandoned in late

Northern Song The Song dynasty ( ) was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Ten Kingdoms, endin ...

period due to excessive silting from the Yellow River. In late

Yuan dynasty The Yuan dynasty ( ; zh, c=元朝, p=Yuáncháo), officially the Great Yuan (; Mongolian language, Mongolian: , , literally 'Great Yuan State'), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after Div ...

, the government conducted a series of major hydrological projects in the area in response to serious flooding of the Yellow River. The old canal was dredged and served as a channel for the flood water to flow into the Huai. The river was named after Jia Lu (贾鲁), chief engineer of the project. In 1938, a man-made flood diverted the Yellow River to Jialu River. The Yellow River followed this course to the

Yellow Sea The Yellow Sea, also known as the North Sea, is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean located between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula, and can be considered the northwestern part of the East China Sea. Names It is one of four ...

until 1946. In recent years, the river is severely polluted by sewage emissions.

References

Rivers of Henan Tributaries of the Huai River Zhengzhou {{China-river-stub