Chen Qiwen’s reportage Down the Yellow River draws the outline of the overall picture of the Yellow River by describing such typical scenic spots of the river as Maduo, Liujiaxia, Sanmenxia and Huayuankou, and integrates the trivial fragments of the thousands-of-year Chinese civilization of the Yellow River through field interviews and archival data access, which three-dimensionally shows the history modal of the Yellow River, and constructs the collective memory of the Yellow River by writing biography and history for it. Through the comparative narration of merits and demerits, right and wrong, natural disasters and man-made calamities, the book makes a sad cry for the fate of the Yellow River, and even the fate of the Chinese civilization.