Abstract Unlike other large rivers flowing out of Tibet, the Yellow River escapes from the plateau towards the NE crossing no less than five NW–SE striking, actively growing ranges and intervening basins. Thick Plio-Quaternary deposits and fluvial terraces testify to a phase of aggradation and sediment infill up to the average surface elevation (3200–3250 m a.s.l.) of the Gonghe, Guide and Qinghai Lake basins. A set of seven main terraces across the Gonghe Basin suggests progressive down-cutting of the Yellow River carving the 500 m deep Longyang gorge at the basin exit. 10 Be and 26 Al concentrations in quartz of surface and sub-surface samples of four terraces constrain the timing of incision by determining the burial age of the deposit and the exposure age of its surface. Modelling the depth dependence of the 10 Be concentration and the 26 Al/ 10 Be ratio allows us to constrain the onset of the ongoing phase of incision to 120–250 ka. These ages suggest long-term incision rates between 2–6 mm a −1 . Together with the present morphology of the Yellow River terraces across the Gonghe basin and the Longyang gorge, our results imply rapid river catchment evolution and interaction between river dynamics, tectonic and climate in northeastern Tibet.