Its glacial waters plunge torrentially through alpine meadows and deep gorges in the Jigme Dorji National Park, and descend into a wide, open, undulating valley.

[1] A prime trout stream, it nourishes lush green rice fields and apple and peach orchards on its banks.

[6][7] Below the Dzong, a traditional wooden covered bridge called Nyamai Zam spans the Paro Chhu.

The bridge was also shown in the movie Little Buddha by Bernardo Bertolucci[8] Below the town of Paro, the river runs immediately to the west of Bhutan's only international airport.

Because Bhutanese traditions regards such a convergence of rivers as inauspicious, there are three chortens here to ward off evil spells in the area.