Chongqing - Yichang - Chongqing via Badong

Captain’s Welcome Reception

The Captain’s Welcome Reception sets the tone for the voyage. Join the captain and fellow guests in a glass raised to the journey ahead — to the river, and to the days that will unfold upon it.

Welcome aboard the Yangzi Explorer!

Arriving early? Optional pre-cruise excursions are available (at additional cost)

• Option A: Chongqing City Walk — RMB 580/person （minimum 10 guests）
• Option B: Dazu Rock Carvings — RMB 880/person （minimum 5 guests）
• Option C: Anyue Grottoes — RMB 3,880/person (2-day tour, minimum 2 guests)

Option A: Project 816 – The Underground Nuclear Complex

• 20th-Century Architectural Heritage of China
• China Industrial Heritage Protection List

Project 816 is a top-secret Cold War relic carved into the mountains of Fuling — the largest man-made military cave ever built, and the world’s only nuclear facility that was 85% complete before being abandoned. For 18 years, 60,000 engineers worked in secrecy. Declassified in 2002, its 18 caverns and 130 tunnels form a labyrinth of concrete and silence. A place where history stopped mid-sentence.

ZHONGXIAN

By evening, we arrive at Zhongxian, nestled in the heart of the Three Gorges reservoir area. Its name is steeped in legends of ancient loyalty and valour — a place of enduring beauty, celebrated in verse through the ages. When the dam raised the waters, much of the old town went under. But Zhongxian was one of the lucky ones: enough remained to preserve the spirit of Ba-Yu culture and the raw character of the old Three Gorges.

Two evening activities await your choice. Each presents a different way to spend your night.

Option B: Zhongzhou Museum & Zhongzhou Old Alley

A museum by day is one thing; by night, it is quite another. An exclusive after-hours visit to Zhongzhou Museum offers an immersive journey through time. Over 20,000 artefacts, six of them national first-class treasures, come to life in the stillness of the night.

The river rose. Most of old Zhongxian went with it. What remains is Zhongzhou Old Alley — the only half-submerged street in the reservoir, the last memory of the old city. Ming and Qing courtyards still stand here: grand mansions, carved ancestral halls, moss-covered gates. The river laps at their walls, then recedes, leaving wet steps and waterlines. Half the street is underwater. The other half still echoes with footsteps. The river and the city have learned to live together. The stories remain.

Option A: Goddess Sky Road

Step onto the Yangzi Explorer Trail — a cliffside path named after our ship, winding along the edge of thousand-metre precipices. Gaze into the distance, where a legendary peak keeps its eternal vigil, watching the river turn and flow eastward.

Deeper along the trail, a viewing platform offers an unobstructed panorama of the Twelve Peaks — their ethereal forms emerging through mist and cloud, facing the legendary peak across the river. It feels as if the goddess of legend herself stands waiting, veiled in dawn’s glow, inviting you to raise your glass to the river and lose yourself in the morning mist and evening light of Wushan.

For those with the energy and a sense of adventure, a guided hike takes you through ancient mountain villages and along little-used trails. You walk through rock folds formed millions of years ago —
a silent chronicle written in stone. Along the way, you pass terraced fields that change with the seasons, a tea plantation where leaves are still picked by hand. You might stop at a farmhouse, exchange a few words with the people who live there — not a planned visit, just something that happens. And that moment stays with you.

Return to the ship for lunch as we sail into Wu Gorge, the second of the Three Gorges. All restaurants aboard Yangzi Explorer feature floor-to-ceiling windows, so the scenery comes to you as you dine. A meal accompanied by cliffs and clouds.

Wu Gorge is a realm of depth and endless turns — jagged peaks rise like swords and screens, range upon range veiled in drifting mist. The river coils and curves, revealing new vistas at every bend. The clouds here are not just scenery. They are part of the story, celebrated in verse for over a thousand years.

Sailing through, the green ramparts unfold like a landscape scroll. At times, a massive cliff seems to bar the way — then, with a turn, the view opens wide, sky and clouds mirrored in jade-green water. Such is the magic of this place: a shifting dreamscape where time itself seems suspended.

Option A: Eastern Xiling Gorge – Onboard

From Huangling Temple Pier, the eastern stretch of Xiling Gorge unfolds in three passages.

Huangniu (Yellow Buffalo) Gorge is crowned by the cloud-piercing Huangniu Rock, said to be the divine ox turned to stone after helping Yu tame the floods. An ancient folk song speaks of its winding waters — now calm, yet the cliffs stand as eternal witnesses to time.

In Dengying (Shadow Play) Gorge, four curious rocks along the riverbank resemble human figures. When the setting sun casts their shadows upon the water, they look like shadow-puppet silhouettes. Local lore has it that these are the stone forms of the Tang Monk and his disciples on their westward journey.

The final stretch, Huangmao Gorge, narrows to a throat, the river bursting through. Suddenly, the walls fall away — Nanjin Pass, the eastern gate of the gorge. The river widens from 300 metres to over 2,000 in an instant. The Gezhou Dam appears ahead; beyond it, the Jianghan Plain opens to the sky. The journey through the gorges ends here, and the river becomes something else — gentler, broader, no longer hemmed in by stone.

Fangweng Cliff Restaurant

Lunch is at Fangweng Cliff Restaurant — built into a cave on the cliffside opposite Sanyou Cave. It takes its name from the Song poet Lu You, who stopped here for wine and tea on his way to office eight centuries ago. The restaurant is known as one of the world’s most remarkable cave dining rooms, and its signature Yangtze fat fish hotpot has been named a “China Famous Dish” — tender flesh in a milky, sweet broth.

Two shore excursions await you in Badong.

Option A: Mistvale Haven

Mistvale Haven lies in the heart of the Three Gorges — a landscape of gorges, caves, waterfalls, and ancient inscriptions, marking the boundary where Ba and Chu cultures once met. At its centre is Wuyuan Cave, formed over 350 million years ago. Its name — “Source Unknown” — comes from an old tale: explorers once ventured in with candles, burning seven and a half before turning back, still unable to find the end. Inside, stalactites cluster and an underground river flow — the only cave in the Three Gorges where you can row a boat. Here, the Song chancellor Kou Zhun left his poems carved in stone, and the Tang poet Li Shangyin’s verses still echo through the gorge. A live performance unfolds against the canyon walls — light and shadow playing across the rock, waterfalls providing the score — bringing these ancient words to life. A place where 350 million years of geology and a thousand years of poetry meet, waiting for those who come in search of verse.

Option A: White King Town

White King Town sits at the mouth of Qutang Gorge, on a hill surrounded by water. Red walls and grey tiles rise through the trees. To the east, Kui Men — the world-famed gateway where the Yangtze bursts between the mountains on either side. It’s the view on the back of China’s ten-yuan note. Stand on the city walls and watch — and you understand why poets wrote, why armies fought, why this place still commands the river.

Option C: The Summit of the Three Gorges

From the Summit of the Three Gorges, at 1,388 metres, the entire 8-kilometre sweep of Qutang Gorge lies before you. Clouds drift below; peaks roll like waves in every direction. Below, the river threads through the mountains — a silk ribbon against the stone. To the west, White King Town floats among the treetops. Beyond it, the silhouette of Wushan rises like a screen.

The view is never the same — spring rhododendrons, autumn red leaves, winter snow. On a clear day after rain, clouds roll in from the valley like a tide. Every season has its own face.

Option A: Shibao Village

Shibao Village rises from the river — a wooden pagoda built against a solitary rock. Dating back to the Ming Dynasty, it clings to the cliff, tier upon tier, like a giant seal stamped in the water. Surrounded on all sides, it is known as one of the world’s eight most unusual buildings — and the largest “basin garden” on the river. Climb to the top. The wind comes off the water. Four hundred years of timber still stands.

Option C: Huanghua Island

Huanghua Island lies at the geographic centre of the Three Gorges reservoir, surrounded by calm water. Fields and forests shift with the seasons. Rare plants grow here, including the “panda of the plant world” — the lotus-leaf fern. In 2016, the island became a national wetland park.

But Huanghua is more than trees and ferns. In the 13th century, it was a fortress — a rare island stronghold in a time of war. Most of it was destroyed. But the foundations, temple ruins, and cliff inscriptions remain beneath the soil, waiting. In 2026, a new museum opened, telling the story of that forgotten chapter.