Tiger Leaping Gorge

The Tiger Leaping Gorge (Chinese虎跳峡, Pinyin Hǔtiào Xia ) is an approximately 15 kilometer long canyon in the north of China's Yunnan province. According to legend, a tiger should be able to overcome the gorge at its narrowest point on a boulder in the middle of the river with two jumps. By measuring the difference in height from the lowest point to the highest, it is 3,900 m difference in altitude, the deepest gorge in the world.

In its valley of the Yangtze River flows as a wild mountain river at an altitude of about 1800 m above sea level at the entrance to the gorge and about 1600 m at the outlet. The highest points are at 5596 m, the peak of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain on the east side and with 5396 meters of the summit of Haba Xueshan on the west side.

The average water supply is according to an inscription on the rocky gorge about 7,800 cubic meters per second, the average water depth is 40 m.

The gorge is heavily developed through pathways that partly through tunnels to the narrowest point.