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In the lowlands of eastern and central Hubei (the Jianghan Plain), the Yangtze is lined with levees (embankments), protecting fields and villages from floods. The top of the levees is well paved, making them pleasant paths for walking, running, and biking. Typically, there is only a very limited amount of motor vehicle traffic on the levee roads - farmers accessing their fields, people who have come to fish or to fly a kite, and occasional tourists. The levee path can be accessed at many locations via paved farm roads, or via roads that run to river docks.
The Yangtze levees mostly run through agricultural terrain. A major afforestation program has been underway for some years, narrow strips of forest being planted on both sides of each levee. In the areas where the trees have grown tall, these rows of trees among the fields allow one to identify the location of the levee from a kilometer or two away.
Kilometer markers are placed along the length of the levees; the distance, on each side of the river, is measured in the upstream direction (i.e. from the Anhui border on the north side of the river, and from the Jiangxi border on the south side).
Even though the levees, in principle, are continuous (as required by their flood-protection purpose), they, unfortunately, don't form a continuous path through the entire province, or even through any single county. Numerous breaks exist at construction sites, harbor facilities, and at the points where major tributaries enter the Yangtze. (At such points, the levee continues inland along the tributary, but the closest bridge across that tributary may not be all that close, or it may not be accessible from the levee). Perusing satellite images on Google Maps (alas, not accessible from within China itself without a VPN) may be the best way to identify continuous sections of the levees and the access points.