Ten Most Beautiful Gorges of China

#1. Yarlung Tsangpo River

The Yarlung Tsangpo River is one of the most important rivers in China, with water reserves that rank second in China. It originates from the middle section of the northern slope of the Himalaya Mountain with an elevation of more than 6,000 meters and make an unparalleled unique U-turn around the mountain of Namjfgbarwa, before finally reaching Baxike in Medong County, and creating the famous Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon.

#2. Tiger Leaping Gorge (Hutiaoxia Gorge)

Tiger Leaping Gorge (Hutiaoxia Gorge) stands in the southeast of Zhongdian County and the north of Lijiang City, just on the section of the Jinsha River between the Haba Snow Mountains and the Jade Dragon Snow Mountains, 105 km away from Zhongdian County, and 100 km away from Lijiang County. The great gorge inspires awe and nobility of spirit.

#3. Yangtze River

The Yangtze River (Changjiang), over 6,300 kilometers long, is the largest and longest river in China, and the third-longest in the world, next only to the Nile in northeast Africa and the Amazon in South America. The source of the Yangtze River lies to the west of Geladandong Mountain, the principal peak of the Tanggula Mountain chain in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, southwest of China.

#4. Great Nujiang Canyons

The Great Nujiang Canyons is a ”longitudinal” valley, lying parallel with the run of mountain ranges that give rise to the natural wonder of the Three Parallel Rivers. This is because the northeast edge of the Indian Plate collided with the Eurasian Plate, creating a series of large north-south splits in what is today’s northwestern Yunnan and eastern Tibet.

#5. Lancang Canyon

The Lancang Canyon is located in Diqing County, stretching from Foshan Township to Yanmen Township, over 100 kilometers to the south, and has the largest elevation difference in Yunnan. The river surface in the canyon is 2,006 meters above sea level; on the left bank rise the Kawagebo Summit (6,740 meters) of the Meili Snow Mountain and on the right the Zhalaqueni Summit (5,460 meters) of the Baima Snow Mountain, giving a maximum elevation difference of 4,734 meters, within a slope distance of only 14 kilometers.

#6.  Tailuge

Look at a cross section of Taiwan Island, you will find that its topography is asymmetrical. The Central Mountain Range lies mostly in the eastern part, rather gentle on their western face with a wide plain in front, while their eastern face is mostly sheer cliffs rising sharply from the western shore of the Pacific Ocean.

#7. Yellow River flows through mountains

Once it leaves the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the Yellow River flows through mountains, making many twists and turns, falls and continues its course until reaches Taohuayu (Peach Blossom Valley) in Zhengzhou City where it suddenly changes from opening up channels and valleys into creating new land. Taohuayu thus becomes the top of the world’s largest delta—the North China Plain. Most of the Yellow River gorges occur along Taohuayu.

#8. Jinkou Gorge that the Dadu River gorge

The Dadu River originates in the Bayan Har Mountain where Sichuan and Qinghai province meet. After the Lesser Jinchuan River converges with the Large Jinchuan in its upper reaches at Danba, it is called the Dadu River. The river rushes through high mountains and lofty ridges in the eastern part of the Hengduan Mountains.There are gorges with splendid scenery all the way, but it is in the Jinkou Gorge that the Dadu River gorge landscape reaches its climax.

#9. Taihang Mountains

The gorge group of the southern Taihang Mountains located between the Huguan Pass and Pingshun of Shanxi Province and Lenzhou and Huixian of Henan Province, with the White Defile as the mainstream, is typical of the Taihang Gorge system. The height of those ridges is between 1,000 and 2,000 meters.

#10. Kuqa (or Kuche) Gorge

The Kuqa (or Kuche) Gorge is located in the southern part of the Tianshan Mountains, about 64 kilometers north of Kuqa County in Xinjiang. The Kuqa River is a tributary of the Tarim River, and local Uygur people call its valley ”Kizilia” which means ”red cliffs”. A typical earth-rift ravine, the gorge extends more than five kilometers in total, with a main valley and seven branch valleys.