Recently, the field geological investigation team co-organized by Professor Ji Shaocheng from the School of Engineering of University de Montreal and Professor Zeng Wei from the School of Architecture and Urban Planning of CQU discovered a gorge of sculptured rocks of nearly 2,000 meters long within Lishi Town, Jiangjin District, Chongqing. The gorge resembles the mini version of the narrow gorge in Zion National Park of the USA. The yellow and red sandstone with cross bedding developed has been grounded and drilled by the gravel contained in the torrent for more than 10,000 years, thus producing countless cylindrical potholes, which are mutually connected in the bed rock. The continuous river channel with smooth and morphologically complicated rock palisades is thus formed. The two professors engaged in the investigation have named this gorge of sculptured rocks after the village in which it is situated as “Longyin Gorge of Sculptured Rocks”.

The geographical coordinates of Longyin Gorge of Sculptured Rocks are N°28.99805° E°106.2616°. The straight line distance between the Gorge and the central districts of Chongqing is only about 70 km.

We are always amazed at the dynamic natural forces that are shaping the Earth. Longyin Gorge of Sculptured Rocks is one of the masterpieces of such natural forces. The Gorge spans through a section of the Kongmu River nearby Leidashi. The River originates from Mojiagou Reservoir of Caijia Town, Jiangjin, and flows northwards through Fude Village, and then it turns towards northeast and flows through Liujiao Village, Kongmu Village and Lishu Village successively, into Longshi Gorge. It eventually flows into the Shunxi River and meets with the Qijiang River, and then flows into the Yangtze River. The Kongmu River is nearly 30 km long, with a drainage area of 100 square km.

This marvelous gorge is rarely known by people as it is located remotely. It only takes some development and organization efforts to build it into an appealing tourist attraction of Chongqing. The tourists may look down upon the splendid cliff of the gorge, but may also get to the bottom of the gorge and walks from the bottom to the top to have a close look to the smooth and water like curved surfaces of the palisades. Visitors desiring to chase adrenaline may also wear rubber clothes and go for hiking along the bottom of the gorge, and look for cobblestones with polished surface and clear grains in the potholes. The sunshine sheds into the gorge via the skylight at the gorge top, reflected many times by the curved surface of color stone covered by dark green moss, resulting in fantastic color combination. It looks like an archway leading to the paradise. The great power of nature has turned the cold stone into lovely and sweet creatures. Longyin Gorge of Sculptured Rocks will be built into a practice base for nature education of middle school students and primary school students and undergraduates majoring in geoscience for them to understand the formation and evolution process of bed rock river.