China · Hubei
Where to Stay in Yichang, Hubei
Where to stay in Yichang
Not every neighbourhood fits every trip — here's what each one is good for.
Where you stay in Yichang turns on the river town or the dam. The streets along the Yangtze keep the piers, the parks, and the cave within reach, and staying by the river suits anyone here for a gorge cruise. Cruise boats line the waterfront.
Ferries dock below the promenade. Out toward the dam and the gorge mouth, the town gives way to hills and locks. A room near the dam trades the river town for the reservoir, the viewpoints, and the ships climbing the great locks.
Green cliffs close in upstream. Stay by the river for the cruises, or near the dam for the works. The Yangtze is always in view.
About Yichang
Yichang is the city where the Three Gorges begin.
What is Yichang known for?
On the Yangtze in western Hubei, it stands at the lower mouth of the gorges, and just upstream rises the Three Gorges Dam, the largest in the world, while the poets of old left their names in a river cave here. Green gorge walls climb upstream. The great dam holds back the river.
What are the main landmarks in Yichang?
The Three Gorges Dam stands just above Yichang. The vast wall of concrete across the Yangtze, the largest dam on earth, holds back a reservoir that runs far up the gorges, the mark of the modern city, west of the town. An old cave overlooks the river.
The Three Travellers' Cave keeps the poems and names of Tang and Song visitors, while the Xiling gorge and the temples fill the hills above Yichang.
What is the history of Yichang?
Yichang has guarded the mouth of the gorges since ancient days. Where the Yangtze breaks out of its great canyons onto the plain, the town grew as a river port and a fortress, the last safe harbour for boats that dared the rapids upstream, and armies fought here for the road to the west. Poets came to the gorges.
Tang and Song travellers wrote of the cliffs and left their names carved in a cave above the river, and the gorge scenery drew wanderers for a thousand years. The river ruled the city's life and danger. For centuries the Yangtze flooded the plains below and wrecked the junks in the rapids above, until engineers set out to master it.
Then the great dam rose. In our own age the Three Gorges Dam was built just upstream, the largest in the world, tamed the floods, drowned the rapids, and made Yichang a city of power and locks. The old cliffs still frame the river.
Yichang holds its gorges and its dam on the Yangtze.
Where is Yichang?
Yichang lies on the Yangtze in western Hubei, China, where the river leaves the mountains for the plain. The city sits at the foot of the gorges, on both banks below the great dam, where the Xiling gorge opens onto the Jianghan lowland. Steep gorge hills rise to the west.
The broad river flows east to Wuhan.
What is the climate of Yichang?
Yichang has a humid subtropical climate. Hot, wet summers hang over the river, and mild, damp winters bring rain and mist to the gorges, with a long growing season and fog off the water. Mist wreaths the gorge cliffs at dawn.
The river runs green below the dam.
How do you get to Yichang?
Yichang lies in western Hubei, on the Yangtze upstream of Wuhan. Fast trains and the expressway run to it from Wuhan and Chongqing, and cruise boats set out from here up the Three Gorges. River ferries call at the gorge towns.
The high-speed line reaches Wuhan in two hours.
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Updated August 2026