The Duoyi River 

The Lubuge Gorge 
The gorge is located 40 km southern of the count. Lubuge is from Buyi language, meaning "a beautiful village". The major scenic spot is the Power Station Dam and its artificial lake. The dam is 103 m high and the reservoir has a storage capacity of 110,000,000 cubic m. The project was designed by 4 counties engineers (British, Italian, German & Chinese). The human power made the valley into a fascinating view with the 18 floors dam like a labyrinth.

The Luguge Canyon is a storage reservoir of the Luguge Hydroelectric Power Station. It was originally an extremely turbulent section of the Huangni River. Even the bravest vulture did not dare to enter the canyon. With the construction of the power station, a dam connecting Yunnan with Guizhou has cut off the intractable Huangni River. As a result, a 19.8-kilometer-long lake has been created in the canyon. The canyon is full of cliffs in various life-like images. A steamer trip will take you into a fairyland. At the entrance, you will be greeted by a cliff in the shape of a girl combing her hair. Soon you will come to the first gorge, which is guarded by a "brave lion".

 Coming into the gorge, you will see cliffs in the images of "a monkey salvaging moon in the water" and "a hanging basket trap for fishing." The second gorge is called "Diling" (meaning monkey in Buyi language). It is surrounded by heaven-kissing precipices clothed in green. Now and then snub-nosed monkeys will appear on the precipices. Just as you are in your best mood, two lovely "elephants" are drinking deep in front and block your way. It seems that you have come to the end of your trip. But after the ship turns around the "trunks," you will come into another world. This is the famous "Twin-Elephant Gorge." In the gorge, you will have a breath-taking view of the life-like images of "age-old glossy ganoderma" (a much cherished tonic mushroom) and "roc with broken wings".

The scenic spot stretches from the Duoyi Stockaded Village to the meeting-point of the three rivers which is also the common part of the three provinces. There are approximately 40 waterfalls along the river bed which is about 12 kilometers long. On both banks of the river grow many ancient trees and elegant bamboos. The sight is colourful and well arranged. The river water is clear and blue all the year round. The most charming are those ancient trees with a history of more than one thousand years on the banks. The roots of the trees are twining and the whole place is just like a giant natural artistic exhibition hall for the root carvings. Here you can fully enjoy such wonders like the three rivers running together, the clear water running in one direction and the muddy water running in another direction.

The waterfall groups of the Duoyi River at the meeting-point of the three rivers:

The Duoyi river falls and thus waterfalls come into being. There are 7 levels altogether. The total height is 15 meters and the width is 80 meters. The river water is clear all the year round.

The Waterfall Groups at the New Stockaded Village

There are 3 waterfall groups at the New Stockaded Village. The first one is 3 meters high and 35 meters wide; the second one is 2 meters high and 40 meters wide; the third one is 2 meters high and 15 meters wide. They are distributed along the riverway which is about 300 meters long. There are also other sights like the Langwai Waterfall Groups, the Waterfall Groups at the Thunder God Beach, and the Bantai Waterfall Groups.

How to get there
There are passenger buses going to the Duoyi River at all the Bus Station in Kunming. There are through trains in Zanjiang and Guangzhou to Luoping.

Tips
The Duoyi River stretches for more than 10 miles. You can take a pedicab and tour along the Duoyi River. The distant mountains are green, and the paddyfields on the banks wave to and fro. If you are tired, just stop and taste the grilled fish and grilled potatoes, or buy a wreath Buyi women plait with cole flowers and radish flowers and put it on your head.

The most distinctive thing is the Colourful Flower Rice of the Buyi people. They get all kinds of flowers, leaves and roots on the mountain, and cook them in water to get their juice. Then they marinate the sticky rice in the juice to dye them into red, yellow, blue, black and purple. Finally they braise the sticky rice, roll the rice into colourful rice balls, and apply the honey. It is said that the rice balls can detoxifcating.