The Great Nujing Canyon is a "longitudinal" valley, lying parallel with the run of mountain ranges that give rise to the natural wonder of the Three Parallel Rivers. This is because the northeast edge of the Indian Plate collided with the Eurasian Plate, creating a series of large north-south splits in what is today's northwestern Yunnan and eastern Tibet.

The Great Nujiang Canyon starts from Cawarong at Zayul County in Tibet and stretches south for some 30 kilometers to reach LIuku, capital of Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan Province. Flanked by the Biluo an Gaoligong snow mountains, this is the most perilous section of the Nujiang River; it is over 2,000 meters deep on average, the deepest point being between the 5,128-meter-high Luchulaka Peak of the Gaoligong Mountain and the 4,784-meter-high Zhuzipo Peak of the Biluo Snow Mountain, where the valley bottom is 1,650 meters above sea level, giving a height difference of 3,478 meters. The riverbed in the Great Nujiang Canyon is usually 100-150 meters wide in the canyon but is just a few dozen meters across at its narrowest.

The most strategic places of the Nujiang River are the Shuangnawadi Grand Canyon and the Qinatong Canyon. The Qinatong Canyon, with a length of 65 kilometers, is located at the Naqialuo segment from upstream Bingzhongluo to the Qinatong, and almost there is not any flatland. The steepy cliffs are standing beside the two banks, while the primitive forest is stretching to the horizon.

Flowing toward the south with an annual water amount of 1.6 times that of the Yellow River, the river is impinging against the banks and thus forms the steepy Grand Gorge of the Orient with high mountains and deep valley. As affected by the southwestern monsoon climate of the Indian Ocean, the Grand Gorge of the Nujiang River forms a special climate that there are four seasons in a same mountain and the weathers are different within five kilometers. It is a common phenomenon that the trees are verdant and green in the river valley that is sweltering as in summer, the flowers are in full bloom and the grasses become yellow on the sidehill, and the mountaintop is the world of ice and snow as in winter.

The area of the Great Nujiang Canyon is famous for cultural diversity. The largest community of the Lisu ethnic group lives here and it is the only place where Nu and Derung ethnic groups live; 20 other minorities are represented here, among them Primi, Bai, Yi, Naxi, Tibetan, Jingpo and Dai. The Ancient Tai Horse Road along the canyon is some 1,000 years old. Many ethnic groups and religions coexist, but Christianity and Catholicism are all very popular with those ethnic minorities - a cultural and geographical phenomenon worth pondering.