Splendid Yangtze River Tour with Guilin

Hello, dear friends! Welcome to Yichang! Our guide will pick you up at the airport and take you to Yichang Three Gorges Center Cruise Terminal OR Yichang-East Train Station for shuttle bus to Maoping port, where you will board your Yangtze River Cruise. Here, your cruise on the Yangtze River will formally begin.

In the morning, you can join a Tai Chi exercise on board. Today your cruise ship will first sail through Xiling Gorge, The Xiling Gorge is the longest of the Three Gorges, the most beautiful in terms of natural beauty, and the most dangerous one. On both sides of Xiling Gorge, there are also some densely populated villages. These people are far away from the city, building their houses on the mountainside and on the top of the mountains. You can see the small houses dotted on the mountains along the river on your cruise ship, which will be a pretty interesting scene.

Then, you can choose to have the additional shore excursions. The following two excursions will cost extra, and you can decide and make the payment on site. Tribe of The Three Gorges is a nice place where you can immerse yourselves in pleasant natural scenery and experience distinct local culture. Once you enter the part called boat dwellers, you will find that ancient fishing culture remains alive here. The beauty of Tribe of The Three Gorges is beyond all words, and you should feel it personally.

Or, you can choose to visit Hometown of Qu Yuan. Quyuan is seen as the earliest  patriotic poet in China, and this building was built in memory of him. It covers an area of 33.3 hectares, with a bronze statue of Qu Yuan in it. It is said that after being framed and lost the trust in his monarch, he insisted on disclosing the conspiracy of the enemy country at the risk of being killed. The monarch refused to believe him. Finally, Qu Yuan threw himself into the river without hesitation when he heard the sad news that he would be put in exile. You can know more about him at this attraction.

In the afternoon, we will come ashore to visit the Three Gorges Dam Site. Three Gorges Dam is the major part of the Three Gorges Hydroelectric Power Station, the world’s largest water conservancy project. Today, it has emerged as a hot tourist attraction thanks to its magnificent scenery. And your guide will take you to an observation deck, where you will have a great view of the Three Gorges Dam Site in a distance.

This evening, a Captain's Welcome Reception needs your presence, preparing you a buffet for supper and giving you another chance to feel the hospitality of Chinese people.

Xiling Gorge

Three Gorges Dam Site

Today, your wonderful tour will start with Tai Chi morning exercise. After breakfast, we will arrange a smaller ship for your Shore excursion to Shennong Stream. The stream is 60 kilometers long, and during the short journey, the grotesque stones and karst caves along the way will catch your eyes. After that, a buffet will be provided for you.

In the afternoon, your cruise will pass by Wu Gorge, the highlight of the Three Gorges tour. The gorge is featured by its twist and turn, leading innumerable ancient Chinese poets to praise with beautiful sentences. Make sure you don’t miss out on the impressive views of Wu Gorge! The next gorge you will pass by is Qutang Gorge, which is the shortest but the most imposing one of the Three Gorges. Our cruise will cross the very narrow parts of Yangtze River this time, enabling you to see the green mountains on each side closer.

Before today’s cruise on the Yangtze River comes to an end, an additional shore excursion to White Emperor City may add more pleasure to your travel. Please kindly note that this isn’t included in our itinerary. You can decide whether to join it and make the payment on site. Today, it attracts many visitors for being the site of famous history. In ancient times, the White Emperor City used to be a critical military stronghold because it was easy to hold but hard to take. It is said that Liu Bei, the first emperor of Shu Kingdom (221-263), was critically ill in White Emperor City after a big war with the enemy country. So, he summoned his prime minister Zhuge Liang and entrusted him with his own son. He told the minister to assist the future ruler in governing the country as much as possible. You can learn more about what happened here during your visit. Come on! Let’s have a look at the ciy!

Shennong Stream

White Emperor City

Today, before breakfast, you can also join the morning Tai Chi exercise group. There’s no arrangement for you this morning and you can have some leisure time on your own.

After lunch, it will be shore excursion time. Fengdu "Jade Emperor" is well worth a visit. The attraction was built to show the charm of traditional Chinese culture whose one important component is Taoism. Here is a Jade Emperor Hall, a place that draws many people to pay reverence to the Jade Emperor and ask for a blessing. You can have a try since it really works according to the locals.

There’s another option you can take. Usually, visiting Fengdu “Ghost City” won’t be left out during a Yangtze River cruise tour, especially for people who are crazy about adventure. The town is full of buildings that are designed according to Chinese people’s imagination of buildings in the world of the dead. One of the most famouse sites among tourists here is the Naihe Bridge (a bridge that connects the world of the living and the world of the dead according to Chinese myths). It is said that if you walk on it and make wishes, your wishes will come true. If you want to try crossing it, remember to make sure the number of steps you take is an odd number, because only in this way can you get the best wish. Please kindly note that visiting this Fengdu “Ghost City” requires extra charge, and you can decide whether or not to take it as well as make the payment on site.

In the evening, your day will end with a Captain's Farewell Banquet.

Fengdu "Jade Emperor"

Fengdu “Ghost City”

Today, your guide will take you to the airport for the estimated flight EU1997 12:45/14:25 to Guilin. Upon arrival, you can see our local guide waiting for you with a big smile. Guilin has been a charming city because of its wonderful natural landscape since ancient times. With an area of 27,800 square meters, the city has about 4.93 million people living here permanently. Li River Cruise, together with  visits to local popular tourist attractions, will leave you a good impression of Guilin.

This morning, we will arrange Elephant Trunk Hill as your first destination. Like many people, I guess you will also be curious about the name of this hill. Looking far away, you seem to see an elephant guzzling the water of Li River, so the mystery is solved. Chinese people tend to regard elephants as a mascot and a symbol of peace. Legend has it that this elephant was the mount of the Emperor of Heaven, and he got separated from his team in a war. What’s worse, illness struck him down. But the kind people in Guilin discovered him timely and took good care of him until he recovered. To express his gratitude, the elephant decided to stay and prevent local people from the disturbance of monsters in the Li River. The elephant didn’t leave eversince, and he became Elephant Trunk Hill you see today. Next, the driver will move southward and take you to Longji Rice Terrace Field, which is about 101 kilometers away. Around two and a half hours later, you will arrive there.

Your afternoon will begin by visiting Longji Rice Terrace Field, an attraction where you can indulge yourself in a pleasant pastoral life. Your guide will take you to an observation deck for you to appreciate the highlight of this attraction, a majestic scene of a huge terrace surrounded by seven small terraces. Moreover, you may see local people with distinctive ethnic costumes singing and dancing happily here.

Then, it’s time to go back, and you will be taken back to the hotel downtown.

Elephant Trunk Hill

Longji Rice Terrace Field

This morning, you will be taken to the Mopanshan Port for a Li River Cruise tour. The driver will drive southward, and it will take us about 45 minutes to arrive at the port, which is 24 kilometers away from the center of Guilin. You will take the cruise ship from Guilin to Yangshuo, and enjoy magnificent scenery of the Li River. You may have heard that Guilin is praised by many as “By water, by mountains, most lovely, Guilin!”. And the highlight of Guilin scenery lies along the Li River.

After getting off the cruise, we will head for Yangshuo West Street. The street extends around 800 meters, and you will be surprised by the number of foreigners you can see when you come here. Many of them are obsessed with the relatively slow pace of life here, and describe it as a leisure resort. You can buy some souvenirs while strolling around, or stop for a while to taste local food. Beer fish deserves your consideration. You won’t have a chance to taste such an authentic dish in other places because its ingredients have to be the fish living in the Li River. Its crispy fish skin and tender meat have won many customer’s hearts. If you are a lover of spicy food, remember to remind the waitress to add more chillies.

After having some free time in this street, you will be transferred to the hotel in Yangshuo.

Optional Activity：

You can choose to watch a performance in the evening. Impression Liu Sanjie is the first musical performance that adopts actual landscapes as its settings in China. The well-known director Zhang Yimou also participated in the design of this performance, and acclaimed it as a wonderful show of the beautiful natural scenery in Guilin, of local folk custom, of a perfect work of nature and humans. Five themes with corresponding colors in the whole performance can be easily distinguished thanks to the application of a set of equipment: the largest-scale lighting effect in China, unique smoke simulation and hidden sound equipment. Moreover, the auditorium is modeled in the style of a terrace, offering every audience a great view. Usually, the show will start at 7 p.m., but remember to make your entry earlier. Then, just enjoy your time in the following 1 hour.

Yangshuo West Street

Li River

Today, our guide and driver will take you back to Guilin, that 66 kilometers away from Yangshuo. We will drive eastward for around one hour and 20 minutes. You will be transferred directly to the airport of Guilin and take your flight back home. Your 8 days Splendid Yangtze River Tour with Guilin ends here, and we look forward to seeing you again in the future!

Author: Jiang Bingya

Proofreader: Li Yiwen