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The Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon

Everyone has reason to cheer the discovery of China’s largest canyon. In early October 1998, the canyon was given its official name, Yarlung Zangbo Daxiagu (Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon). The Yarlung Zangbo River runs eastwards along the northern foothills of the Himalayas. The lower reaches of the river cut through the mountain range before making a sharp U-turn around Namjagbarwa Peak in Pai, Namling County, in eastern Tibet—the starting point of the Grand Canyon. The Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon has been confirmed as the largest in the world. It is 496.3 kilometers long, 56.3 kilometers longer than the Colorado Grand Canyon, previously considered the world’s longest. It is 5,382 meters deep, much deeper than the 3,200 meters of Peru’s Colca Canyon, previously known as the world’s deepest canyon.

The canyon, with its climatic advantages and tropical and subtropical bio-resources, will be a “museum” of species and a gene “storehouse.” However, the core of the canyon is still a depopulated zone. No one has ever gone through it on foot and no one has ridden its turbulent current. It includes the Great Turn Valley, where the Yarlung Zangbo River makes a 180-degree turn. The Medog Nature Reserve was set up there in 1986. Many scientists visited the reserve, but no one has ever hided the length of the canyon. The word Medog means flower in Tibetan language. It is located 400 kilometers southeast to Lhasa. It is the only county in Tibet without road links to the outside world. The reserve, which has an elevation of 600 meters and covers 626.2 square kilometers, making it a complete natural ecological environment, is famous as the site of the northern most tropical forests in China. The reserve is home to about 4,000 species of plants, accounting for half of the plant species in Tibet and 1 per cent of those in the world. So far, 21 very rare species have been discovered there. Rugged terrain and frequent landslides make it impossible for a road to remain open all the year round. A team of 40-odd Chinese scientists and journalists set off on October 19, 1998 to conquer the Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon. The scientists on the trek were from such fields as atmospheric science, botany, zoology, geography and environmental science Rebecca Lee Lok-si, and explorer from Hong Kong and vice-chairman of the China Association of Scientific Expeditions, took part. The team sent 20 people on a walk through the canyon in April 1998, and this was good preparation for the large-scale expedition.