Includes bibliographical references (pages 399-404) and index.

The plan -- The mouth, open wide -- The city without a past -- The first reach -- City of victims -- Rising waters -- Crushed, torn and curled -- Swimming -- A new Great Wall -- The shipmaster's guide -- The foothills -- The garden country of Joseph Rock -- The river wild -- Harder than the road to heaven -- Headwaters -- Afterword: The Yangtze.

Rising in the mountains of the Tibetan border, the Yangtze River, the symbolic heart of China, pierces 3,900 miles of rugged country before debouching into the oily swells of the East China Sea. Connecting China's heartland cities with the volatile coastal giant, Shanghai, it has also historically connected China to the outside world through its nearly one thousand miles of navigable waters. To travel those waters is to travel back in history, to sense the soul of China, and Simon Winchester takes us along with him as he encounters the essence of China--its history and politics, its geography and climate as well as engage in its culture, and its people in remote and almost inaccessible places.