Yíchuān

Yichuan lies in the loess hills west of the Yellow River, southeast of Yan'an. The plateau is broken into smaller uplands by streams and ravines, while the great river forms the eastern boundary. At Hukou, the Yellow River narrows abruptly from a broad channel into a rocky gorge and plunges over a waterfall. A county gazetteer of 1753 compared the constricted channel to the mouth of a kettle, explaining the name Hukou. The falls mark one of the river's most dramatic passages through the plateau.