 What is now thought of as Chinese culture developed along the more fertile Yellow River basin; the "Yue" people of the lower Yangtze possessed very different traditions blackening their teeth, cutting their hair short, tattooing their bodies, and living in small settlements among bamboo groves and were considered barbarous by the northerners.The Central Yangtze valley was home to sophisticated Neolithic cultures.Later on it was the earliest part of the Yangtze valley to be integrated into the North Chinese cultural sphere.