CHINA

Luxury Yangtze River Cruise

Experience a luxurious river cruise in China with the Sanctuary Yangzi Explorer which operates between Chongqing and Yichang. The cruise usually lasts 4 days/3 nights and departs Chongqing on Thursdays.

The staff-to-passenger ratio is around 1:1 and the Yangzi Explorer is the only full-suite cruise ship on the Yangtze River featuring 62 rooms, all of them with a river view balcony.

Shore Excursions:

The 816 Underground Project (shore excursion)

The world’s largest artificial military cave, an intriguing secret, hidden in the mountains of Fuling. Over 50 years ago, more than 60,000 engineering soldiers came to Jianzishan, an uninhabited place among mountains and forest, to break ground on a top-secret nuclear weapons facility. After 17 years (1984), just when the facility was nearly completed, the government decided to cancel the project. The government declassified the facility in 2002, and you can now walk its eerie tunnelways and abandoned reactors.

Shennong Stream and Village (shore excursion)

Visit a traditional trackers village. Here, most of the homes are composed of mud, kitchens are filled with meat hung out to dry, and the residents’ beds share a room with their coffins. Take a ride down Shennong Stream on a sampan – a traditional longboat rowed by a Tujia boatman. As we gently float through this stunning riverine gorge, you’ll see evidence of early settlements in the form of hanging coffins stowed high within the limestone cliffs.

Three Gorges Project Dam Site and Exhibition Centre (

This excursion is available after disembarking the ship on the last day. Spanning 2,335 metres in length and 181 metres in height, the dam is the largest and most expensive engineering project in the world. While the dam’s 32 generators will produce enough clean energy to curtail China’s reliance on coal, the project has also caused much controversy. During construction, 13 cities, 140 towns, 1,352 villages, over 600 industrial factories and more than 1,200 archaeological projects were submerged.

Things you need to know: Best to book early to guarantee availability.