Spectacular dam waters release

• China
• Henan
• Luoyang
• Xiaolangdi

Description

Each year thousands of tourists flock to a reservoir along the Yellow River in China to witness a ritual cleansing so violent that it can look as if the earth just exploded. At the end of June and the start of July, for as long as two weeks before the flood season, Chinese officials open large portals along the walls of the Xiaolangdi Dam, releasing clear and muddy water simultaneously from the reservoir above to the river below. It gushes out, and in some years clouds the color of doom ascend beyond the dam’s walls.