The Jinsha River — the upper course of the Yangtze — flows through Panzhihua in a deep gorge that cuts through the industrial infrastructure of the city. The best viewpoints are on the hills above the south bank, where you can look down on the river's distinctive reddish-brown colour (caused by iron-rich sediment from upstream mining) winding between steep slopes covered in bamboo and subtropical forest.
The river confluence point where the Yalong joins the Jinsha is visible from the eastern edge of the city. This junction is the reason the city was built here — iron ore from the mines needed to be shipped downriver, and the confluence of two major rivers provided the transport infrastructure that made the steelworks viable. The industrial scale of the operation, viewed from above, is striking in its own right.