Yangtze River Hiking Tour

Day 1 ARRIVE IN CHONGQING (SD)

Arrive in Chongqing , our guide will pick you up at airport and transfer you to the hotel. City tour of Chongqing: visit the People’s Great Congress Hall—the landmark building of this city and the Chongqing Zoo (Giant Panda), or go to the Ciqikou ancient town if time permits.
In the evening you will savor the famous Chongqing Hot Pot.

	Wu Gorge

Day 2 HIKING THE QUTANG GORGE (B, L, D)

Depart from Chongqing at 7:00 am by expressway bus, connect a speedy ferry tour starting from Wanzhou Town, and arrive at Fengjie town around 2:30 pm. Have box lunch onboard. Then we hike the west part of the Qutang Gorge. (6 km / 3 hours). It is a short warming up hike, yet a fabulous journey.

The Qutang Gorge is known for the sheer and spectacle precipices. Hiking through the Kuimen Gate area and the mountain slopes with some remaining Plank Road, you can see the sharp cliffs standing on both banks of the river. Taozisahan, you can view here, the highest mountain peak along the Three Gorges, is some 1400 meters high above sea level, and the narrowest ravine is only several dozens meters wide. For quite a few years, here is the symbol of Yangzi Three Gorges, and it is printed as a background picture of ￥10 of Renmenbi banknote. For historians, there are more than enough historic stories of Emperor Liu Bei with his prime minister Zhuge Liang (220AD-280AD), while men of letters would be very much like to enjoy the gem of Tang and (618 AD - 907AD) and Song Poetry (960AD-1271AD), with the leading poets Li Bai, Du Fu, Bai Ju-yi, Liu Yu-xi and Lu You, Fan Cheng-da, etc..

Day 3 HIKING THE YANGTZE VALLEY BETWEEN GORGES (B, L, D)

Breakfast in hotel and start tour today at 8:30am. On the way, your hike will lead you to pass through fertile fields with rice paddy, wheat, corn, rape seed plants in different seasons. On the river-facing hillsides, plum, peach, loquat and orange trees are in blossom one after another. When autumn gently mounts a platform here, the maple-red gorges here are gorgeous, the beautiful rural scenery attracts all your sensations. You can even pluck fruit on the way, reciting some beautiful verses of Qu Yuan (340BC-278BC), founder of Chinese literature. You can also visit the local farmer’s houses and a rural school, to gain some first hand information about their life in the heartland of China.

	Qutang Gorge

Day 4 HIKING THE WU GORGE (B, L, D)

Set out to the middle part of the Wushan Gorge from the Wushan town at 8:30am. Consisting of some remaining ancient plank roads, some sections you hike today are only 10-50 meters above the water level. The trails is about 6-7 hours walk in length. Known for its deep and beautiful cliffs, the Wu Gorge is the long one and main part of Yangtze Gorges sceneries, right in the middle of the Yangtze Three Gorges area. Tourists always stay here longer and enjoy more of their Yangtze tours here. It would be an unforgettable experience for you to hike this area and enjoy those famous attractions such as the Goddess Peak, Pine Trees Peak and the Scissors Peak. You have a chance to have Home stay, that is, to stay at farmer’s simple houses overnight (or return to Wushan town by ferry).

Day 5 HIKING THE WU GORGE (B, L, D)

Have breakfast at 7:30 am. and start hiking at 8:00 am, this trail is along a charming stream by the Gorgeside with 10 km long. This poetic part of the gorges always attract painters, men of letters and photographers to stay for weeks. The point they will reach is near 1200 meters high above the Yangtze water level. You can see some farmers’ houses and beautiful scenery all the way. And early in the afternoon, you finally get over the Mountain to the Dock, where the chartered boat waiting you. Sail to Badong Town afterwards. Have dinner in and stay overnight in Badong Hotel.

Day 6 HIKING THE EASTEN WU GORGE  (B, L, D)

This trail is located between the mouth of the Wushan Gorge and the Badong Town. It is about 12 km in length, and takes about 4 hours to hike. We start at 8:30 am, arrive at the mouth of the Wu Gorge at about 9:00 am, disembark and start off for hiking. Path in this part is less than one meter’s wide, 300-500 meters above the water level. You may feel soft adventure when you look down to the river, but the feeling of walking in clouds and seeing boats sailing under your feet is fantastic. Take coach to the Three Gorges Dam and check in the Three Gorges Engineering Hotel.

	Xiling Gorge

Day 7 YANGTZE NEW DAM SITE / DEPART FROM YICHANG (B, L, D)

Visit the Yangtze Gorges Dam Project (9:00am-11:00am), you will be escorted to the airport for next flight.

After 75 years continuous proposing and scientific research, the largest water conservancy project in China and also in the world, Three Gorge Project took into construction. It mainly comprises three large parts: dam, hydropower stations and navigation buildings. Nowadays, the dam together with the 5-step ship locks has become one of the main tourist attractions in the Yangzi River tour. The TGP is located at Sandouping, Yichang, Hubei Province in the middle section of Xiling Gorge, about 38 km upstream of the Gezhouba Project. The dam site boasts excellent natural conditions such as a rather wide valley, sound and intact granite bedrock, an average annual runoff of more than 1 million km2. After the implementation, the concrete gravity dam will be 185 m high, 1.1 km wide and 3,035m long on the top, and the normal pool level of reservoir is at 175 m, with total storage capacity of 39.3 billion m3 and the total acreage of the reservoir is 1,084 km2. The designed one-way shipping capacity of the navigation facilities (including a twin 5-step shiplock and a one-step vertical shiplift) is 5050 million tons a year. The ship lock can adequately handles tows up 10,000tons and ship lift can provide immediate service for any vessels under 3,000 tons. For construction of this project, 1.13 million migrants have been resettled and the expected investment is USD 24.65 billion.

Itinerary: AB: American Breakfast   L: Lunch   D: Dinner   SD: Special Dinner

HIKING SEASON:     JAN., FEB., MAR., APR., JUNE., SEP., OTC., NOV., DEC 
HIKING DIFFICULTY:　 Low – Middle
EQUIPMENT:　      Cane, Telescope, Raincoat, First-aid Kit