A wide country as China never stops to surprise its visitors, offering much more than a monotonous tourist experience, indeed thanks to the Yangtze river and Yangtze Cruise it is possible book a cruise travelling along various remote and modern destinations at the same time, reviving the historical traditions and developments of this unique route. It is recommended to start the cruise from Shanghai, Shanghai flights. The Yangtze from Chinese “Long River” represents not only the China ‘greatest river, but also a main transport route of the past. The river extends itself for more than 4’000 miles, reaching the same size of the Mississippi. In fact it is the fifth largest river in the world (by volume) measuring ten times the Nile.

As previously mentioned the Yangtze has constituted a fundamental transportation path, promoting the development of several cities along its banks. Chinese civilization first developed along the Yellow river (Huang He) and shortly thereafter spread to two other major areas, the lower Yangtze basin and the rich agricultural lands of Sichuan covering an area of almost a thousand km. The Westernized name Yangtze come from the mix of the two rivers Yangzhou and Zhenjiang called Yangzi, as this has been the first name heard by British explorers and missionaries, that finally has stuck to it. The other reason of its name is that, the river’s name was in honour of the emperor Yang. However most of the locals are not familiar with the English version of the name, struggling to understand the word Yangtze, for this reason tourists should call the river with its proper mandarin terms “Chang Jiang”.

The river stretches along many cities starting from Shanghai, which represents the financial capital of the modern China, as it has started to develop only in the 19th century. Meanwhile destinations such Wuxi, Yangzhou, Zhenjiang, Nanjing important as rival of Beijing, Wuhan, Yichang also known as the getaway to the Gorges and finally Chongqing one of the china’s largest cities, all the above destinations give the opportunity to revive China’s old traditions experiencing a unique holiday. In top of this the river not only reaches Chongqing as its last destination but it stretches far beyond, indeed the river has the headwaters deep in the Tibetan mountains. Indeed more adventurous tourists, it is possible to follow the river much further than Chongqing.

However visitors on the Yunman tourist trail are able to see some of the upper reaches of the close river Lijiang. Part of the Yangtze constitutes one of the three rivers at the “Three Parallel Rivers National Park”, a UNESCO World heritage located in Yunnan. Furthermore the Yangtze passing by several ancient cities gives the opportunity to visit other main destinations that do not sit on its banks, but easily accessible. One of those is certainly Hangzhou which is not only the capital of Zheijang near Shanghai but it is also connected by the “Grand Canal” to Wuxi and Suzhou. The latter represents a must-see attraction in China, indeed the city of Suzhou characterized by its gardens, and canals, is one of the most traditional city out there, offering spectacular flowers and plant collections including the typical Bonsai. Tourists should also visit Chengu, the capital of Sichuan as it represents one of the Yangtze’s tributaries.

The best way to visit those destinations is a cruise through the Yangtze River, but also the high speed rail thanks to improving quality gives the opportunity to visit several of the city mentioned above such as Nanjing-Wuxi-Suzhou-Shanghai-Hangzhou routes. For further information tourist should consult China Tours.