China Canyon World Heritage
Tiger Leaping Gorge
2,897 m of rock, cut by the Yangtze River.
Gisling · CC BY-SA 3.0
The cut
2,897 metres, to scale.
A slice through Tiger Leaping Gorge where it is deepest and narrowest, measured on the Copernicus relief model every 30 m. Same scale as the landmark standing on the floor.
Standing on the floor, to scale: Eiffel Tower · 330 m · Burj Khalifa · 828 m
Depth is measured to the lower rim; the width is from rim to rim. A 30 m relief model smooths the narrowest walls, so a slot canyon reads shallower than it is.
2,897m
Depth
measured on the 30 m relief model
10.3km
Rim to rim
measured on the 30 m relief model
59°
Steepest wall
average over 300 m, from the relief
1,668m
Floor altitude
Rim to floor
19 °C warmer at the bottom.
In June the afternoon reaches 30 °C on the floor, against 11 °C on the rim. The best months to hike are from February to March and in November. The rim freezes at night from September to May. The wettest months are from June to September.
- 16°-3°Jan
- 19°0°Feb
- 22°3°Mar
- 26°6°Apr
- 29°10°May
- 30°11°Jun
- 30°10°Jul
- 29°10°Aug
- 27°8°Sep
- 24°5°Oct
- 20°1°Nov
- 17°-2°Dec
Afternoon highs, 1991–2020 averages (NASA POWER) brought to the altitude of the rim and of the floor with the standard lapse rate (6.5 °C per 1 000 m). Shade, wind and rock change this on the day. Not a forecast.
River canyon in China
Tiger Leaping Gorge is a canyon in China, cut by the Yangtze River. The relief model measures 2,897 m from the floor to the lower rim. Rim to rim it is 10 km wide where the cut was taken. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Getting there.
- Viewpointsnearest viewpoint · 0.4 km from the floor
- Lijiang Sanyi International Airport (LJG)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 62 km in a straight line
- From February to March and in Novemberbest months to hike (estimate)
Plan the visit
Guided hikes, a bed nearby, a car.
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
The river
The Yangtze River runs highest from August to October.
The Yangtze River carries about 1,144 m³/s on average here. It runs highest from August to October. It is lowest from December to May.
- 329 m³/sJan
- 191 m³/sFeb
- 241 m³/sMar
- 354 m³/sApr
- 559 m³/sMay
- 1,055 m³/sJun
- 2,049 m³/sJul
- 2,870 m³/sAug
- 3,073 m³/sSep
- 2,609 m³/sOct
- 1,616 m³/sNov
- 779 m³/sDec
From about 191 m³/s in the lowest month to 3,073 m³/s in the highest. Its basin above this point covers 217,130 km².
Follow the Yangtze River from source to mouth on Riveryas
Estimate: long-term flow from the HydroATLAS model (WaterGAP, 1971–2000) shaped by the monthly rain, snow and temperature of the area (NASA POWER). Dams change it. Not a forecast.
From the sky.
The canyon from above, with the relief shaded, the line of the cut, the river and what people have mapped around it.
N
6 km
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 22 × 22 km, north up. The line is the cut above. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Around the canyon.
- 19viewpoints within 5 km中虎跳石, Flag viewpoint and 17 more
- 2marked hiking routes within 4 km虎跳峡徒步, 中虎跳徒步线
- 2footbridges and suspension bridges within 3 km
- 1named waterfalls within 4 km大瀑布
- 1campsites within 8 km老谷牧场
- 42hotels and guesthouses within 8 km桥咖啡客栈, 中途客栈, 望江客栈 and 39 more
- 2restaurants and cafés within 4 km
- via ferrata routes within 4 km
- climbing crags within 3 km
- rafting, canoe, kayak or canyoning spots within 4 km
- swimming spots within 3 km
- caves within 3 km
- car parks within 3 km
- information boards and visitor centres within 4 km
- bus stops within 2 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, around the floor of the canyon. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet. © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
In our other atlases
What else is around Tiger Leaping Gorge.
The river that carved it, the waterfalls inside it, the mountains on the rim, the lakes, beaches and island nearby — from our six sister atlases, each with its own figures.
Riveryas10 rivers in the canyon
Peakyas2 mountains within 15 kmFigures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, NOAA, OpenStreetMap). Links open when each site is online.
Month by month
The weather, at the floor and at the rim.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon · floor | 16 | 19 | 22 | 26 | 29 | 30 | 30 | 29 | 27 | 24 | 20 | 17 |
| Afternoon · rim | -3 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 10 | 11 | 10 | 10 | 8 | 5 | 1 | -2 |
| Night · rim | -17 | -16 | -13 | -9 | -5 | -2 | 0 | -1 | -2 | -7 | -12 | -16 |
| Rain (mm) | 10 | 13 | 23 | 39 | 71 | 137 | 229 | 215 | 138 | 65 | 9 | 4 |
| Rainy days | 2 | 3 | 7 | 7 | 10 | 18 | 25 | 24 | 20 | 10 | 2 | 1 |
| Sun hours/day | 9.0 | 8.9 | 8.0 | 7.4 | 6.9 | 5.4 | 3.8 | 4.4 | 4.2 | 6.2 | 8.6 | 9.1 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 4 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Afternoon · floor | Afternoon · rim | Night · rim | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 16 | -3 | -17 | 10 | 9.0 |
| Feb | 19 | 0 | -16 | 13 | 8.9 |
| Mar | 22 | 3 | -13 | 23 | 8.0 |
| Apr | 26 | 6 | -9 | 39 | 7.4 |
| May | 29 | 10 | -5 | 71 | 6.9 |
| Jun | 30 | 11 | -2 | 137 | 5.4 |
| Jul | 30 | 10 | 0 | 229 | 3.8 |
| Aug | 29 | 10 | -1 | 215 | 4.4 |
| Sep | 27 | 8 | -2 | 138 | 4.2 |
| Oct | 24 | 5 | -7 | 65 | 6.2 |
| Nov | 20 | 1 | -12 | 9 | 8.6 |
| Dec | 17 | -2 | -16 | 4 | 9.1 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the floor (1,668 m) and the rim (4,643 m) with the standard lapse rate. Not a forecast.
Photographs
Seen from the trail.
Recent years
Wet years, dry years.
Rain of each month as a share of the 1991–2020 average. A dry year means a lower river and hotter rock; a wet one, more water in the gorge.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 234% | 172% | 17% | 132% | 107% | 57% | 92% | 148% | 114% | 187% | 35% | — |
| 2021 | 63% | 20% | 15% | 11% | 14% | 247% | 94% | 133% | 92% | 29% | 26% | — |
| 2022 | 85% | 238% | 45% | 214% | 119% | 182% | 79% | 61% | 107% | 70% | 3% | — |
| 2023 | 0% | 50% | 71% | 18% | 51% | 113% | 61% | 160% | 60% | 142% | 284% | — |
| 2024 | 22% | 135% | 103% | 44% | 78% | 86% | 122% | 63% | 84% | 84% | 487% | — |
| 2025 | 91% | 66% | 188% | 60% | 189% | 106% | 118% | 134% | 102% | 77% | 355% | — |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length | Wikidata (Q1460797) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| The cut: depth, width, wall and 3D model | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| River flow and basin | HydroATLAS / RiverATLAS v1.0 (Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 |
| Viewpoints, trails, bridges and the river line | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Rivers, waterfalls, mountains, lakes, beaches and islands nearby | Coastya, Lakeyas, Peakyas, Cascadyas, Islandyas, Riveryas |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
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