The general framework of the Yangtze River’s mainline waterway elements perception and interaction system is designed. At first, the demand of waterway conditions perception is analyzed and defined in macroscopic view, including waterway itself and elements related to waterways directly. The perception precision and real-time requirement are also discussed. Secondly, the framework of the Yangtze River’s mainline waterway elements perception and interaction system is divided into the perception layer, data process layer, internal information interaction layer, information service and announcement layer. The key technologies in perception, transmission and display during the system construction are presented. The proposed perception and interaction reflect the concept of active service, and provides an indication to the implementation of intelligent service system for the Yangtze River wateway in the future.