Jinsi Grand Canyon

The Jinsi Grand Canyon in Shangnan County, about sixty kilometres southeast of Shangluo city, is a narrow river gorge with coloured sandstone walls, clear water, and a total length of twenty kilometres. The Danjiang River runs through the canyon floor, sometimes quietly in pools, sometimes in cascades over boulders. The walls are banded in horizontal layers of red, yellow, and ochre, with green vegetation on the upper slopes above the rock faces.

The canyon has been developed for domestic tourism with walkways along parts of the gorge floor and boat trips on the calmer sections. It is impressive without being overwhelming: the scale is accessible, the scenery is genuinely beautiful, and the crowds are moderate compared to more famous gorges elsewhere in China. Spring and autumn are the best seasons, when the water is clear and the temperature is comfortable.

things to do sight
A story
The Jinsi — "golden silk" — gorge takes its name from the colour of its sandstone walls, which run in horizontal bands of red, yellow, and orange that in certain lights do look like folded silk. The Danjiang River has cut through this rock over millions of years, leaving walls up to several hundred metres high and a gorge floor sometimes only a few metres wide. The canyon was known to Tang Dynasty poets but remained effectively inaccessible to tourist development until road construction in the 2000s opened up this part of southeastern Shaanxi.