Three Great Gorges Running Side by Side

Three Great Gorges Running Side by Side is an original illustration set in Three Parallel Rivers, Yunnan, China. It lies in the subtropics, where the climate is subtropical highland — dry winters, mild summers.

Three immense north-south gorges run side by side, each separated from the next by a continuous high mountain ridge. A muddy rapid twists through the nearest hot, dry valley bottom, while dark forest bands and bright snow caps stack upward across the intervening ranges.

How can three major rivers run almost parallel yet drain toward different seas?

Tectonic uplift raised closely spaced ranges while the upper Yangtze, Mekong, and Salween cut deeply through them without merging. The high ridges act as enduring drainage divides, forcing neighboring rivers to remain in parallel corridors before turning toward widely separated downstream basins. Deep incision, repeated ridge-and-gorge bands, dry lower slopes, wetter forests, and glaciated summits express the exceptional vertical relief of northwestern Yunnan.

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