Trilogy Tour Wuling Mountain, Baiheliang Museum and 816 Project

Overview

In just one day, descend into three hidden worlds shaped by water, war, and wilderness. Start forty meters below the Yangtze River at the White Crane Ridge Underwater Museum – the only place on earth where you gaze through glass at 1,200-year-old stone carvings in their original submerged riverbed. Then travel deep inside a mountain to the 816 Nuclear Project, a secret underground city carved in secret during the Cold War, where massive concrete halls and miles of tunnels tell a story of abandoned ambition. Finally, step into the Wuling Mountain Great Rift Valley – a narrow limestone slash where boardwalks cling to vertical cliffs and the sky becomes a thin white line above. Three worlds, one day, no special gear required. Just walking shoes, curiosity, and a taste for hidden China.

Itinerary

1. Jiefangbei Square

   Pick up from hotel and be on the road for 1.5 hours to get our first site.

   · 1 h 30 min

2. Baiheliang Carved Museum

   The White Crane Ridge Underwater Museum is the world’s first and only in-situ underwater heritage museum – a place where you stand 40 meters below the Yangtze River and gaze through portholes at stone carvings over 1,200 years old. Once a natural ridge that appeared only during dry seasons, it collected 170 inscriptions from Tang Dynasty scholars and officials, including ancient poetry, calligraphy, and the earliest known records of Yangtze river levels. When the Three Gorges Dam permanently submerged the ridge, China built an underwater steel shell to protect it in place. Visitors take a submerged escalator and a tunnel down to observation windows, where history floats silently outside the glass – no diving suit required.

   · 1 h· Admission included

3. 816 Nuclear Military Plant

   The 816 Nuclear Project is a decommissioned underground plutonium production facility carved entirely into a mountain in Chongqing – the largest man-made cave system in the world, hidden from public knowledge for nearly 40 years. Over 20,000 soldiers and engineers worked in absolute secrecy during the Cold War, digging 18 massive concrete-lined halls and over 12 miles of tunnels deep inside Wuling Mountain. Visitors today walk through the reactor hall that was designed to house a 150-megawatt nuclear reactor, stand inside the giant computer room that never received its final equipment, and feel the cold wind blowing through blast-proof doors weighing over 30 tons. It is a haunting monument to wartime paranoia, abandoned ambition, and the engineering extremes of 20th-century China – a secret underground city that never went critical, now open to the light.

   · 1 h 30 min· Admission included

4. Chongqing Wuling Mountain Forest Park

   The Wuling Mountain Great Rift Valley is a raw, narrow slash through the limestone heart of Chongqing's eastern highlands – a place where stone walls rise hundreds of meters on both sides and the sky becomes a thin white line overhead. A wooden walkway bolts directly onto vertical cliffs, leading visitors through ancient fissures carved by underground rivers over millions of years. You pass through the "Heavenly Gate," cross a swaying bridge between two peaks, and listen to water dripping from moss-covered rocks in near-silence. Unlike the man-made secrets of the 816 Nuclear Project or the submerged history of White Crane Ridge, this is nature's own hidden corridor – cool, damp, and dramatically untouched. No elevators, no portholes, just a deep crack in the earth waiting to be followed.

   · 4 h· Admission included

5. Jiefangbei Square

   After visiting all three sites, we will drive back to your hotel.

   · 1 h 30 min

Pickup

Pickup included.

We will inform you of the license plate number one evening before your departure date and will pick you up at your hotel entrance early in the morning. Your guide will be holding a sign or tablet with the group leader's name. Thank you. If your hotel is not within the selectable range, please email us before making your reservation.

What to know before you go

• Public transportation options are available nearby
• Infants are required to sit on an adult’s lap
• Not recommended for pregnant travelers
• Travelers should have at least a moderate level of physical fitness
• You will receive confirmation immediately when you book.

Travelers

Cancellation policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

• From 1 days before : 100% refunded
• From 0 days before : 0% refunded

This activity can be canceled in case of bad weather.

Reviews

Product code: 5619326P9

Activity offered by Wow Trip via Viator.