Shaanxi earthquake in 1556

The Shaanxi earthquake hold the notorius title of being the deadliest of all time. Considering it happened nearly 450 years ago, the memory of the aftermath remained strong over the course of history. Centered in China's central Shaanxi province, the 1556 quake took around 830,000 lives. The massive death toll was a result from several factors. The quake's strength is estimated near 8.0 on the Richter scale, which had a devastating effect on the location in question.  In the morning of 23 January 1556 in Shaanxi, most of the population at the time lived in Yaodongs, artificial caves built in cliffs. Many collapsed unable to withstand a quake of such force and massive landslides resullted in great loss of life. An area some 500 miles wide was wiped out, affecting more than 97 counties in the provinces of Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, Gansu, Hebei, Shandong, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu and Anhui. In some counties more than 60% of the population was killed.

Yellow river flood in 1887

The Yellow River (Huang He) in China is prone to flooding, because of the largely flat land around it. Numerous days of heavy rain combined with flat land around the river made were making it easy to swell over the riverbank. In 1887 floods devastated the area, killing between 900,000-2,000,000 people in process. It is considered one of the most deadly natural disasters in human history. For centuries, the farmers living near the Yellow River had built dikes to contain the rising waters. The rising riverbed overcame the dikes causing a massive flood in a nearby area. The waters of the Yellow River covered an estimated 50,000 square miles and swamped agricultural settlements. After the flood, over two million people were left homeless. The resulting pandemic and a shortage of basic provisions claimed as many lives as the ones caused by the flood itself.

China floods in 1931

From 1928 to 1930 a long drought preceded the China flood in 1931. Heavy snowstorms in the winter were followed by spring defrosting and heavy rains that raised the river levels. The rain quantity increased over the year. In July seven cyclones hit the country, surpassing the average of two per year greatly. A series of floods occurred during the Nanjing decade in the Republic of China era. The event is considered the deadliest natural disaster in human history. The direct human casualties estimates vary from 3.7 million to 4 million. Disaster created devastating agricultural, economic and social impact on Chinese society. Most of the people died from drowning and the rest from diseases, mostly cholera and typhus. In desparation, wives and daughters were sold in order to survive and in some rare cases even cannibalism was reported.