Grand Canyon of Yarlung Tsangpo is the deepest canyon in the world. As the most mysterious place in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and due to its special geotectonic location, it is regarded as “the keyhole for opening the gate of earth history” by scientists.
The Grand Canyon starts from Daduka Village (3000 meters above sea level) in Paizhen Town, Milin County, and passes by the Yarlung Tsangpo River in Pailong Township, and reaches southward Bashika Village, Medog County (115 meters above sea level, near Assam of India) in southern Tibet. The main body of the Grand Canyon is in Medog County. Going up from Doka Village, Gandeng Township, Medog County, to Jiala Village, Paizhen Town, Milin County, it is an uninhabited area of the Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon.
With a total length of 504.6 kilometers, the deepest point of 6,009 meters, and the average depth of 2,268 meters, the Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon is the unquestionable largest canyon in the world. It is much larger than the world's third largest Grand Canyon of Parlung Tsangpo, the Grand Canyon Colorado in the United States (2133 meters deep and 370 kilometers long) and the Colca Canyon in Peru (3203 meters deep and 90 kilometers long). Some of the main waterfalls fall 30 - 50 meters. The canyon has 9 vertical natural belts ranging from high mountain ice and snow belts to low river valley tropical rain forests and gathers a variety of biological resources, including two third of known higher plant species on the Tibetan Plateau, one second of known mammals, and four fifth of known insects, and three fifth of known large fungi in China. Glaciers, cliffs, steep slopes, mudslides and huge rivers are intertwined throughout in the canyon area, so the environment is very harsh. Without people living here, many regions are described as "the last secret on earth". It is the most diverse biodiversity mountain in the world, a "natural museum of plant types" and a "gene treasure house of biological resources." At the same time, located in the northeast angle of the subduction area of Indian Ocean plate and the Asian-European plate, the Grand Canyon has a variety of geological phenomena and is a rare "Geological Museum".
The Yarlung Zangpo Grand Canyon is a mountain barrier for the water vapor transportation between the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the Indian Ocean, which continuously transports water vapor to the interior of the plateau, thus makes the southeast of the Tibetan Plateau a green world.
Grand Canyon of Yarlung Tsangpo is the region with the most abundant hydropower resources in the world. The river passes through the bottom of two high valleys with over 6000 meters above sea level, and forms a peculiar U-shaped turn around Namjagbarwa Mountain (in addition, there is a Guoguotang turn about 12 kilometers away from Medog County). With high mountains and deep canyon, the Yarlung Tsangpo River flows torrentially. At 496.3-kilometer downstream from Paizhen Town to Bashika (at the bottom of southern Tibet), the river surface elevation is dropped sharply from 2910 meters to 155 meters, and the natural drop is 2755 meters, and the average slope of the whole section was 5 ‰ that ranks first among all major rivers in the world.
These two characteristics, the Great Turn of the Yarlung Tsangpo River and the largest water vapor channel on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, constitute the rare natural wonders in the world and constitute the most characteristic ecological tourism resources. The Grand Canyon area boasts many natural belts with different types. Except for the snowy ice desert and meadow thickets above the forest line above 4,200 meters above sea level, almost all of them are occupied by forests. The natural forest area is wide and boasts abundant forest resources. It is spectacular, peculiar, beautiful, original, pure, rich in resources, and incomparable.
