The Yarlung Tsangpo Rivet with its entrance at Pai Township in Menling County in southeastern Tibet, cuts through the Himalayas that stands in its path, making an unparalleled unique U-turn around the mountain of Namjagbarwa, before finally reaching Baxika in Medog County, and creating the famous Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon. The actual length of the canyon is 504.6 kilometers and its deepest point (6,009 meters)is at Zongrong Village where the river, Namjagbarwa and Mount Lile intersect. Near Dege Village, one side of the canyon is as deep as 7,057 meters.

The overall average depth of the Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon is 2,268 meters and in the core section the average depth, is 2,673 meters. At the entrance to the canyon the river is 660 meters across, gradually reducing to 35 meters at its narrowest point. The sharpest gradient of the river surface is 7,535 per cent. All the figures go to show beyond any doubt that the Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon is the world champion. Other great canyons, such as the Colorado Canyon in the United States, which is 370 kilometers long and 2,133 meters deep, and the Colca Canyon in Peru, with a length of 90 kilometers and a depth of 3200 meters, are not in the same league.

Besides, in the region of the Yarlung Tsangpo Bend there is strong mantle plume action producing the rare phenomenon of "thermal eddying." With an annual rise of 30 mm, this is one of the world's fastest rising regions.

As the Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon cuts right through the Himalayas, it becomes the largest moisture passage for the Indian Ocean monsoon to enter the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The enormous moisture intensity almost equals all the moisture carried in summer from south of the Yangtze River to the north. As the result of this moisture passage along the canyon, the tropical mountain environment extends northwards for an extra six degrees of latitude, thus forming a large green land in southeastern Tibet, and the third largest forested area in China second only to the Northeast and Yunnan.

Around 60-70 per cent of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau living species can be found in the canyon. It presents the world's fullest vertical range of natural zones, from the polar frigid zone to the tropical monsoon rainforest zone in low river valleys;monsoon marine(temperate)glaciers falling from the high mountains; four waterfalls in the river course, and in terms of unit length the richest water resource in the world. It is indeed the world's greenest canyon-no other famous canyons can boast these things.

The average annual rate of flow is 2,000 cubic meters per second at the entrance near Pai Township£»by time it exits at Baxika it is 5,200 cubic meters per second£®That of the Colorado River can be measured in hundreds of cubic meters per second, and it is almost the same with the Colca Canyon; neither can rival the Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon£®In terms of a section of waterway£¬the average discharge of the Yarlung Tsangpo River is 4,425 cubic meters per second, way above the Colorado River's 67 cubic meters per second. With an average velocity of l 6 meters per second the Yarlung Tsangpo River runs rapidly with rising and falling currents, more treacherous than any other canyon.

The beauty of the Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon is beyond compare. The unique U-turn it makes and its being the largest moisture passage on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau put the canyon among the ranks of the world's rarest natural wonders. Its unique natural environment and species diversity make up the colorful and unmatched scenery of the Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon-primal, natural, simple, magical...

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