On the Road Encounters with People in China

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The Yellow River, China's second largest, has shed nearly 200 million tons of sand in the past two years, said Li Guoying, deputy director of the Yellow River Water Resources Committee, here Thursday. The loss had increased the river's flow by 100 to 400 cubic meters per second, Li said at the National Conference of Water Resources Directors. The committee organized sand washing operations in July of 2002 and September of 2003 by discharging speeding currents from the massive Xiaolangdi Reservoir on the lower reaches of the river, successfully carrying 187.1 million tons into the sea.