Yangtze River (Upper / Great Bend)
Also known as: Jinsha River, Jinshajiang, First Bend of the Yangtze
One of the deepest gorges on Earth (~3,790 m relief); Jade Dragon and Haba snow peaks; Naxi villages; UNESCO Three Parallel Rivers (heights only)
Is there water?
Whether there is a river here on your dates, and what kind of water it is.
Snowmelt plus summer monsoon; ~1,400 m3/s (~50,000 cfs) average at gorge. Confirm.
Dry season Dec-May stable low flow; summer monsoon Jul-Sep peaks ~8x low flow. Confirm.
May-June for adjacent sections; gorge core has no safe season
Cold snowmelt-fed; drysuit; exact temp -. Confirm.
Summer monsoon flooding, rockslides into gorge, road closures
Grade & who can come
A river changes grade with its level. These grades describe a normal flow - in flood the same run is harder, and often a different run entirely. Check the gauge before you commit.
Class V-VI (gorge core, effectively unrunnable); Class IV(V) on the now-flooded Great Bend downstream
Expedition kayak / raft - advisory (gorge core not run)
Advisory - not a commercial run; no split options
Expert expedition teams only; permit-restricted; unsuitable for general groups. Confirm.
The run
Tiger Leaping Gorge - continuous Class V-VI, ~10 m/km; only passed in sealed pods (1986) or portaged by kayakers. Confirm.
Gorge core is one continuous no-go; giant holes, exploding waves, whirlpools on adjacent big water
First Bend (Shigu) to Tiger Leaping Gorge (Hutiao Xia)
Gorge is a major hiking tourism draw (busy trail); river itself unpaddled and solitary
Access & shuttle
Advisory/permit-restricted - no commercial rafting or kayaking of the gorge; upstream Jinsha near Tibet AR can close to foreigners. Confirm.
Permits and operators change - confirm before booking.
Road put-in near Shigu/Qiaotou (Hutiaozhen); Daju at gorge exit; low gorge road subject to rockslides
Road shuttle from Lijiang (~60 km, ~1 hr to gorge)
Guesthouses in gorge and Lijiang; no river camps established
Full expedition kit, drysuit; patchy mobile signal; VPN needed for foreign apps
Lijiang hub; historic operators SOBEK, Steve Currey, Earth River; Last Descents and SierraRios run upstream Jinsha (not the gorge)
Hazards & exits
Historic deaths (early-1980s rafters vanished; 11 deaths in the 1986 season). Tiger Leaping Gorge/Longpan dam revival proposed (not yet approved). Confirm.
Effectively none in gorge core - no walk-out, no rescue; extreme remoteness
Self-supported expert expedition only; no outfitter runs the gorge
This profile is desk research, compiled from public sources - not a first-hand river run report. Coordinates are approximate.