Tiger Leaping Gorge

Interesting facts

The river squeezes between Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, 5,596 m high, and Haba Snow Mountain, 5,396 m, under cliffs rising some 2,000 m.

In the early 1980s four rafters set off down the gorge and were never seen again; the river here is considered unnavigable.

The first known successful passage came in 1986, by the first expedition to float the entire Yangtze from its glacial source.

The river through the gorge is an administrative border, with Yulong Naxi Autonomous County on one bank and Shangri-La on the other.

Most people living in the gorge are Nakhi (Naxi), farming grain in a handful of small hamlets and, increasingly, hosting trekkers.

Backpackers were already finding their way here in the 1980s, but the area was only officially opened to foreign tourists in 1993.

A hydroelectric dam proposed in 2004 would have flooded the gorge and displaced up to 100,000 people; the project was abandoned in December 2007.

The gorge lies within the Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan, a World Heritage Site since 2003.

The high trail used by trekkers runs about 22 km, several kilometres longer than the road along the river below.

Why it is worth it

The Jinsha River — the upper Yangtze, before it earns that name downstream — has cut a 15-kilometer gorge between the Yulong and Haba snow-capped ranges so deep that the drop from the highest peaks to the river below runs to nearly 3,800 meters, making it one of the deepest canyons on the planet, whatever the exact ranking on any given list.

The name comes from a story, not a survey: a tiger, cornered by hunters with the river roaring below and the gorge walls closing in, is said to have leapt from the bank onto a boulder sitting mid-channel at the narrowest point — barely 25 meters across — and from there onto the far side to freedom. Two separate spots along the gorge claim to be that exact place, and the boulder at the upper one is still pointed out to visitors as the Tiger Leaping Stone.

Long before trekkers arrived, the high trail above the gorge was a working path — used by traders and villagers moving along a route too steep and exposed for anything but foot and mule traffic. It's that same trail, developed since the 1990s into a multi-day trek with small guesthouses strung along it, that now draws hikers rather than caravans, though the exposed sections and occasional landslides are a reminder it was never built for tourism in the first place.

Good to know

Sections of the high trail periodically close after landslides or rockfall — worth checking current conditions before setting out on a multi-day hike.

Best time to visit

Spring (March–May) and autumn (September–November) offer the clearest trail conditions; the summer rainy season (July–August) brings a higher landslide risk, and winter can leave icy patches on the higher, shaded stretches of the trail.

Getting there

41 km from Lijiang. Lijiang Sanyi International Airport (LJG) is about 62 km away.

From the encyclopaedia

Tiger Leaping Gorge is a scenic canyon on the Jinsha River, a primary tributary of the upper Yangtze River. It is located 60 kilometres (37 mi) north of Lijiang City, Yunnan in southwestern China. It is part of the Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas World Heritage Site.

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