Yǐn yán: Yī gǔ qiān xún, tái tái guà pù; mǎn jiāng bì shuǐ, shuǐ shuǐ míng xīn. — One gorge a thousand fathoms, terrace after terrace hangs its fall; the whole reach jade-green water, each stream clear to the heart.
Kangu Valley (亢谷, Kànggǔ) is a 4A-rated (June 2016) primeval canyon at Xingtian Village, Dong’an town, in the deep fold of the Daba Mountains that forms the county’s northern edge — and, remarkably for a graded scenic area, admission is free. The gorge runs as a sequence: cliff walls hung with a suspended plank walkway (悬空栈道), waterfalls dropping straight into jade-green pools, and a stretch of river valley narrow enough that the sky reads as a ribbon. It is the county’s flagship nature product and the reason most first-time visitors make the mountain-road drive at all.
The valley’s quality is that it was developed late and lightly. The walkway clings to the cliff rather than cutting through the mountain; the waterfalls are the watercourse’s own, not engineered displays; and the pools carry the glacier-melt clarity of a stream that has not passed a town. The name itself — 亢, the tall, exposed ridge — is the local reading of the terrain, and the walk confirms it: this is a gorge seen from above its water, not from a boat.
The gorge pairs with its own water ride: Kangu rafting (亢谷漂流) runs about 3 km with a drop of nearly 100 metres, a summer-only product that operators suspend in flood season — the same rain that fills the pools closes the rafting.Walk the full length rather than sampling one waterfall and leaving; the last reach is the quietest and the water the clearest. In high summer the gorge floor is the county’s air-conditioning, several degrees below the county seat.
flowcloud would say that Chongqing’s other gorges charge 70 to 120 yuan for their rock — and that Kangu hands the same mountain over for nothing, which tells you either the mountain is generous or the road was the toll all along.
Practicalities
- Rating: 4A (graded June 2016)
- Tickets: free entry; rafting ticketed separately, summer season only ⚠️
- Address: Group 3, Xingtian Village, Dong’an town
- Getting there: mountain roads from the county seat — the drive is part of the experience and the reason to allow half a day each way ⚠️ (checked October 2026, subject to change)
- Time needed: 3–4 hours for the full gorge walk on the boardwalk
Words and Names
亢谷 Kànggǔ — Kangu Valley, the primeval canyon · 悬空栈道 xuánkōng zhàndào — the suspended cliff walkway · 东安镇 Dōng’ān Zhèn — Dong’an town, the gorge’s administrative home · 大巴山 Dàbā Shān — the Daba Mountains, the range that defines the county · 漂流 piāoliú — rafting, the gorge’s seasonal ride