11 Days Deluxe Autumn Yangtze River Cruise from Nanjing to Chongqing 2025

Welcome to Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu Province and the famous ancient capital for six past Chinese dynasties. It boasts especially rich historical feature for a cultural discovery with lots of worthy and famous attractions and also a competitive city appearance for a modern China admiration. Take the tourist bus arranged by Yangtze Explorer from Nanjing airport / railway station / your hotel in Nanjing downtown to Nanjing Wumadu Dock and board the ship at 16:00-18:00. Depart from Nanjing at around 18:00.

Nanjing Wumadu Port at Yanziji Area

Nanjing Qinhuai River

Mount Jiuhua is one of the Four Great Buddhist Mountains in China and a World Geopark. With special and refreshing shape like nice lotus flowers, it get the name as Jiuhua and is reputed as “Buddhist World of Lotus Flowers”. Hiking to Jiuhuashan has long been expected and achieved by numerous Buddhist believers for over one thousand years, and appreciating the more than 1,500 Buddha statues and 78 temple clusters is really an enjoyment. Besides, the strange rocks, emerald ravines and streams, sunrise, sea of clouds, rimes and light of Buddha makes Jiuhuashan a fantastic place for both culture and nature seeking!

Sacred Buddha in Mount Jiuhua

Mount Jiuhua

Lushan Mountain is listed as one of the 10 Famous Mountains in China and is famous for having long been complimented by many famous ancient Chinese poets in their masterpieces to describe its peculiar beautiful sightseeing and many kinds of looks from different angle of view.

Museum of Haihun Marquis Tomb Site displays the collections from the tomb of Liu He who was the 27th emperor of Han Dynasty. It is the largest, best preserved and most abundant Han Dynasty marquis tomb found so far and discovers outstandingly the politics, harem fight, massacre, extravagant life and decline in West Han Dynasty 2,000 years ago.

Museum of Haihun Marquis Tomb Site in Nanchang

Jiujiang Lushan Mountain

Yellow Crane Tower from 223 AD is the symbol of Wuhan and is one of the Three Famous Towers in Regions South of the Yangtze River. The antique designs, flying eaves, and rich left charm is great to soak in the literal culture in the historically well-known Chinese poem.

Hubei Provincial Museum, one of the 8 national class museums in China, displays nearly 1,000 pieces of state-level historic and cultural relics. It currently holds over 240 thousand objects to logistically introduce the history and culture of the ancient Chu State and the ancient Yangtze River, among which the most astonishing are the objects excavated from the Zenghouyi Tomb which was built about 2,400 years ago.

Red Cliff is the very site of the historical famous war - Battle of the Red Cliff in 208 AD and contains the original battleground more relative poems and ancient buildings for a clear understanding of the influential place in Chinese history and literary.

Zhiyinhao Ship provides the multi-dimensional drama to show the typical look of the old Wuhan and the port life during 1920s ~ 1930s with great stories.

Ref Cliff in Huanggang, Hubei

Live Performance on Zhiyinhao Cruise in Wuhan

Precious Chimes at Hubei Provincial Museum

Yellow Crane Tower

Yueyang Tower is one of the ten famous historical and cultural towers in China which is well-known for over 1,000 thousand years since the classic Chinese poem. Besides the outstanding construction skills and abundant poem and calligraphic displays, you can get on the tower to admire the great sightseeing of Dongting Lake.

Bianhe Street is a 300-meter long antique street with elegant and ancient charm and is great to savor the ancient styled architectures with mixed culture of Yueyang Tower, Dongting Lake and the famous Yueyang City.

Zhangguying Village of more than 500 years old since the moving in of Zhang Guyang who was a master of Fengshui is praised as “Forbidden City for Folks”, where preserves quite complete ancient village houses, stream and paths and keeps almost the original look hundreds of years ago for a pleasant admiration.

Yueyang Zhangguying Village

Yueyang Tower

Yueyang Bianhe Street

Jingzhou Ancient City Wall is one of the best preserved and larges scaled city wall in southern part in China, which is historic from the Warring States period. Visit this ancient site to admire its look kept from the Qing dynasty and understand the history of Jingzhou being the famous place in the past dynasties.

Jingzhou Museum is one of the top National First Class Museums in China with over 130 thousand pieces of historical cultural relics. Admire the top best silk and colorful lacquer exhibitions from the Warring States period, well preserved swords of famous ancient kings. Besides, it boasts the best preserved and most historic ancient male corpse buried in 167BC from the Western Han dynasty.

The Chariot and Horse Mausoleum of the King of Chu (Xiongjia National Archaeological Site Park) is the best and largest tomb site of Chu State representing the highest level of Chu culture in the Spring and Autumn and War State period. Lots of archaeological experts in China often say, “Terracotta Warriors is best in north China, the Chariot and Horse Mausoleum of the King of Chu in south China.”

Chariot and Horse Mausoleum of King Chu in Jingzhou

Jingzhou Museum

Jingzhou Ancient City Wall

The Three Gorges Dam is the No.1 must-see attraction arranged by every ship as the first or last shore excursion. Located in Yichang City, it has been the world’s largest power station. Three Gorges Dam is 3,335 meters long and the top of the dam is 185 meters above sea level. The dam consists of three parts - dam body, power plants and ship lift. It is used for producing electricity, but also increase the Yangtze River’s shipping capacity. Travelers with a Yangtze River cruise will spend about 2 to 3 hours visiting the dam. You will not only have a close look at the impressive huge dam, but also learn the history, social impact, economics about the dam.

Tribe of Three Gorges is one of the best complimented scenic spots by foreign cruise visitors and is superb to get close to the particularly tranquil, primitive and nice sightseeing of villages on water, on mountain and off brook with fine exploration of interesting folk custom of Tujia minority people.

Three Gorges Dam Five Stages Ship Locks is so far the largest ship locks globally. With a water height difference of 113 meters in total, it is the most complicated ship locks to construct universally.

Three Gorges Dam with Ship Locks

World-famous Three Gorges Dam

Wu Gorge is the middle one gorge. It is a mysterious gorge site well-known for its frequently rising and passing mists, which is extremely beautiful and gorgeous with the leaves in red, yellow, golden and orange during autumn.

Shennv Heaven Path with an average altitude of about 1,200 meters is advantageous to overlook the belt-like emerald Yangtze and verdant flowery gorge mountains, especially for the autumn and winter red leaves.

Qutang Gorge at the western section is narrow and dramatic like an art gallery of nature, which offers superb magnificent scenery for all guests. 

Return to Three Gorges Show (Gui Lai San Xia) is the newest created on-site live performance! The show, directed by Zhang Yimou, is performed to show the beautiful Yangtze River and Three Gorges as the background and stunning Chinese poetry culture as theme.

Wushan Shennv Heaven Path in Chongqing

Xiling Gorge with Mists

Magnificent Qutang Gorge

Breathtaking Wu Gorge Scenery

White Emperor City is located on the north side of Qutang Gorge, White Emperor City offers the best angle to view the magnificent Kui Gate. Known as the Poem City, White Emperor City has attracted many poets come and left many famous poems. What makes this place known to outside is the historical story of “Entrusting Zhuge Liang with an Orphan in Baidi Town”.

Summit of Three Gorges is the highest peak of the famous Three Gorges area to catch the most beautiful gorge and winding river sightseeing.

Summit of Three Gorges at Wushan, Chongqing

Fengjie White Emperor City

816 Nuclear Military Plant strikes the world not only because it’s the world largest artificial cave, but also for its unveiled structure of the real nuclear plant (radiationless for no manufacture happened). You would meet the tens of kilometers long cave, multiple paths inside and a lot of unbelievable parts in the 816 Underground Project. As in the list of 20th century’s architectural heritages in China, this plant is really great for visiting, education and knowledge enrichment.

Fuling 816 Nuclear Military Plant

Welcome to Chongqing, the City of Mountain. Chongqing is China’s fourth municipality after Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin, attracting visitors from home and aboard for its delicious food, cultural heritage, tourist attractions, unbelievable mountain landform... Located at the confluence of Yangtze River and Jialing River, it is best to appreciate the view of the city center. Disembark the cruise at 09:00 in the morning! The cruise company will arrange a vehicle to see you off at the Chongqing airport / train station. If you like, you can also choose to discover Chongqing after disembarkation.

Chongqing Chaotianmen Dock