What we know about this special place

Yarlung Tsangpo is located in Nyingchi, Tibet Autonomous Region, China. The gorge is longer and three times deeper than the Grand Canyon in Arizona, surpassing all known canyons on land, exceeded only by the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean.

The canyon takes its name from the Yarlung-Tsangpo River, which adventurers call the “Everest of Rivers” because it is mostly inaccessible – the average elevation of its course is 4,000 meters above sea level.

The Yarlung-Tsangpo headwaters are located in the western Tibet Autonomous Region, near the Angxi Glacier. The river then meanders east across the Tibetan Plateau and then turns sharply southwest to join the Brahmaputra River.

The Yarlung-Tsangpo Grand Canyon is 505 kilometers long. 60 kilometers longer than the Grand CanyonThis region contains some of the most inaccessible and least explored places in the world, including a very treacherous section in the southeastern Tibet Autonomous Region where it passes between two high peaks: Namcha Barwa, at 7,782 metres, and Gyala Peri, slightly lower, at 7,294 metres.

At this point, the canyon drops to its deepest point, three times the depth of the Grand Canyon. The average statistical depth of the Yarlung-Tsangpo Grand Canyon is 2,270 meters.

The canyon was formed about 3 million years ago when tectonic forces lifted the Earth’s crust and steepened the bed of the Yarlung Tsangpo River, causing massive erosion.

Tallest Trees

Length and depth aren’t the only records this place can boast of – it’s also home to the tallest tree ever discovered in Asia. 102 meter high cypress treeIt was set to replace the Statue of Liberty. A team of researchers from Peking University measured the tree as part of an ecological study designed to help preserve the Tibet Autonomous Region’s unique ecosystem.

It is not known what species the tree belonged to, but publications in Chinese state media at the time suggested it could be a Himalayan cypress (Cupressus torulosa) or a Tibetan cypress (Cupressus gigantea).

Below is the full size picture of the tallest tree in Asia:

The tallest tree in Asia / Photo by Peking University