The surging Yellow River water flows to the sea and never returns
A day for people in Dongying starts with a bowl of Gudao seafood soup. Looking at the oil workers chatting while drinking soup in the breakfast shop, you know who the owners of this city are. Since the first industrial oil flow well was drilled in 1961, this place has been related to oil. Here, patches of oil production trees can be seen everywhere, especially in the Yellow River Estuary Park at the mouth of the Yellow Sea, where the pumping units are even more dense. This is an important oil production area of Shengli Oilfield.
The Yellow River breaks through the barrier with surging power and flows into the sea. The sediment deposition at the estuary formed the Yellow River Delta. The Yellow River Delta has only been formed for more than a hundred years, and the ecosystem is extremely fragile. In order to protect the delta, the Yellow River Estuary National Park was established. It is 30 kilometers from the entrance of the scenic spot to the estuary of the Yellow River, which is very vast. After long-term strict protection, Suaeda salsa, tamarisk, reeds, and yellow alfalfa grow more and more. The abundant food makes this an ideal place for birds to migrate and breed. Oriental white storks, Saunders’s gulls, flamingos, white pelicans, and spoon-billed sandpipers are also increasing.
Under the dense grass is the saline-alkali land formed by perennial alluvial deposits. Greening trees are difficult to grow. Only after strict waterproofing can trees survive. In the past, the treatment of saline-alkali land was pursued, but Dongying has a low altitude and seawater often flows back, so the effect was not ideal. Now the idea has begun to change from saline-alkali land treatment to saline-alkali land utilization. Salt-tolerant soybeans, sorghum, and alfalfa are increasing year by year.
In order to protect the hard-won ecology, all production facilities of Shengli Oilfield in the reserve have been withdrawn, and some of the original oil workers have been transferred to work in the reserve.
Published at: Nov 22, 2021 · Modified at: Dec 24, 2025
