Not A Travel Guide to Guangzhou

Upon request of Herr E who is finally moving his part-that-he-sits-on to Guangzhou, I tried to write some pointers for him. It was intended to be a rather simple scribbled list of interesting places spanning 20 lines or so, but grew to two long pieces that almost deserve to be called a book.

I was a bit taken aback by this rather unexpected result of my own effort. I spent almost 24 years in this city, and had always been trying to get out of it and regretting I didn't go for a Beijing university, feeling it's so depressing it's swallowing me alive. Now this brought me back into a nostalgic mood and I realised, again after all these years abroad, how deeply, fondly I actually feel about it. Guangzhou is by no means a love-at-first-sight beauty, without the epic imperial architectures inBeijing or the glitzy global chic of Shanghai. But as soon as one starts to appreciate the Cantonese food, the city will really grow on you. Then again it's after all China's third largest city and has a history of more than 2000 years, during almost 400 of which it served as China's only port open to the world. I'm actually disappointed that it preserves so little of its past, is so badly planned and destroyed, and has such a low profile overseas.

Now here comes the mega list. It may not include some of the most usual sights mentioned in every traveller's guidebook but that's the point. The order of the listing does not imply priority, or itinerary; I do NOT assume any liability in case you get lost, MUAHAHA!!!

1. 西关 Xi Guan (in 荔湾区 Li Wan district)

This is definitely the most essential of Cantoneseness... I'll list afew places with a brief introduction.

1.1 上下九 Shang Xia Jiu

This has always been a busy pedestrian shopping area, which also takesyou to a few interesting places along the way. It's actually two roads: 上九路 Shang Jiu Road which starts from 人民路 Ren Min Road (a major south-north road on which there's a hospital where I was born!!! - not sure if they have removed the appallingly ugly fly over yet), and 下九路 Xia Jiu Road. Not that I'm recommending buying anything there, but do eat at least one of the below places since this is where the most authentic Cantonese food all started (though not necessarily the best in the city now).

BTW a traditional Cantonese have 5 meals a day: breakfast (早茶 lit. Morning Tea), lunch,afternoon tea (下午茶 - no no sarnies cones whatever; it's very similarto the breakfast servings), dinner, and evening tea (夜茶). The restaurants refer to the 茶 tea sessions as 茶市 and the lunch/dinnersessions as 饭市. So you don't order lunch/dinner items during 茶市 when servings are basically dim sum + 粥粉面饭 (congee, rice noodles, noodlesand rice dishes), and although they may also serve dim sum during 饭市 it tends to be a downsized selection. These days most new/upmarket restaurants don't do 茶市 at all since margin is razor thin there(you'll soon notice how extremely competitive the Cantonese catering business is); but the traditional eateries still run all five of them, staying open some 6am till 11pm.

1.1.1 南信牛奶甜品专家 Nan Xin Diary Desserts

地址: 广州市第十甫路45号
Addr: 45 Di Shi Fu Road

Most famous for the traditional desserts, esp 姜撞奶(ginger milkpudding), 双皮奶(again a milk pudding), 豆沙(lentil dessert) and many oftheir variations. They also serve other non desert 小吃 too - the word小吃 in Chinese is a lot more than "snacks", since many of these areessentially non-formal dishes which include dim sum. Locals may have these for a light lunch, etc. They also do very good 云吞面 (won ton noodles - the cantonese 云吞 is similar to the Northern 馄饨), 肠粉(cantellini with rice pasty and lots of different fillings, the mostpopular being beef although my personal favourite is 猪腰 pig kidneys -MUAHAHA) and 粥congee (try: 皮蛋瘦肉粥 with "chemically marinated" eggs and pork, 及第粥 pork and miscellaneous pig liver/kidney/intestines - you've been warned, and 艇仔粥 with fish and fried peanuts and pork).

1.1.2 银记肠粉 Yin Ji Cheung Fen

Address: 文昌北路345号. 345 Wen Chang Bei Road

THE place for 肠粉. The place is tiny teeny and service is minimal though very efficient. This old shop is minutes away from where my grandparents used to live and my granddad used to take me here for a 肠粉... They serve pretty good congee too.

1.1.3 A few traditional restaurants (yes they all serve 茶市).

Worth checking out their traditional decor, even if you are not patroning.These tend to be in the mid price range, though they all have becomepricier since recent renovations.

陶陶居 Tao Tao Ju: 荔湾区第十甫路20号. 20 Di Shi Fu Road. Founded 1880.
莲香楼 Lian Xiang Lou: 荔湾区第十甫路67号. 67 Di Shi Fu Road. Founded 1889.
广州酒家 Guangzhou Restaurant: 荔湾区文昌南路2号. 2 Wen Chang Nan Road. Founded in 1930s. I remember this old branch has a banyan tree somewhere in their courtyard... Not sure it's still there.
泮溪酒家 Ban Xi Restaurant: 荔湾区龙津西路151号. 151 Long Jin Xi Road. Built on the site of where an ancient king used to hold his banquets, it has beautiful garden settings facing a lakewhich is part of the park 荔湾湖公园 Li Wan Lake Park, one of my major childhood playgrounds... Oh my glorious youth...

1.1.4 西关人家 Xi Guan Household

Address: 上下九路荔湾广场南塔4楼4DZ
4DZ, 4/F, South Tower, Li Wan Plaza, Shang Xia Jiu Road

Not really a traditional eaterie of any sort; but good for sampling different stuff in one same place.

1.2 西来初地 Xi Lai Chu Di, 华林寺 Hua Lin Temple

Address: 下九路北侧西来正街 Xi Lai Zheng Street, Xia Jiu Road

This is where the Chinese version of Buddhism, 禅宗Zen, started, when an Indian buddhist arrived here in 526. The temple is one of the Big Four in Guangzhou.

1.3 陈家祠 Chen Clan Academy

Address: 中山七路 Zhong Shan Qi Road right next to the 陈家祠 tube station.

Used to be a rich family's mansion and now converted to a museum dedicated to traditional Cantonese craftmanship and architecture.

1.4 荔湾博物馆 Li Wan Museum

Address: 龙津西路逢源北街84号
84 Feng Yuan Bei Street, Long Jin Xi Road

A museum converted from a traditional Cantonese mansion 西关大屋.

1.5 Traditional Cantonese neighbourhoods

Just wander around these places making spontaneous deviations here and there: 长寿西路耀华大街 Yao Hua Street Chang Shou Xi Road, 十八甫 Shi Ba Fu Road, 杨巷 Yang Alley, 恩宁路 En Ning Road, 逢源路 Feng Yuan Road, 宝华路 Bao Hua Road, 多宝路多宝大街 Duo Bao Street Duo Bao Road... Watch the locals go about their lives, granddads commenting on politics, grannies cooking and gossipping, playing mahjong...; the fragrance of homecooking during lunch/dinner hours... There's this place 十三行路 Shi San Hang Road that used to be the only place in China where European/Arabic merchants were allowed to do business in China. Sadly enough nothing has been preserved. When I was a child it used to be just another quiet leafy old neighbourhood and now it's the site of some massive wholesale market for texture, clothes, and stuff...

Couple of places worth checking out:

八和会馆 Ba He Club: a very old Cantonese opera club where locals still practise.荔湾区恩宁路177号 177 En Ning Road. Usually closed to non members but hey try flashing your Caucasian face and a couple of Cantonese words...

李小龙故居 former home of Bruce Lee: in fact he was born in 顺德均安, a small town not far away fromGuangzhou. But this is where his dad lived anyway... 恩宁路永庆一巷13号. 13 Yong Qing Yi Street En Ning Road

仁威庙 Ren Wei Temple: a Taoist temple where my granny used to go (not that she's any celebrity... it's a local place for worshipping). 龙津西路仁威庙前街. Ren Wei Miao Qian Street Long Jin Xi Road

2. 沙面岛 Sha Mian Island

An island to the west of 西关. Used to be a British/French concession(yes they had to share!) with colonial architecture. Probably the quietest spot in the city... Avoid the souvenir shops like plague. There's a hotel there called 白天鹅宾馆 The White Swan Hotel, the first 5 star hotel in mainland China opened in the very early 80s. They have a really impressive indoors waterfall in the lobby, which is worth checking out. There are several restaurants in the hotel and they do very, very good dim sum too, in a sun filled river side setting. Though on the pricey side, ofcourse. Near 白天鹅 there's a restaurant called 侨美 Qiao Mei which is pretty good and serves one of the best roasted baby pigeon in Guangzhou - again, a bit expensive.There's a park next to 白天鹅 and if you walk southwards along the riverbank, you'll see a couple of cannons right behind a tennis court (btw there's good Thai restaurant next to the tennis court). These are said to have been used in the Opium War against the Bri'ish; and, they were made in Germany (Thyssen Kruber?).

3. 长堤 Chang Di

Walk along the river from 沙面 Sha Mian, all the way eastwards. You'll see this 塔影楼 Ta Ying Tower which is again a historic building from the early 20th century,now converted to some posh wine club. You'll notice a clock tower too,that's the old Cantonese customs, once controlled by the Bri'ish. Not sure whether it's now a museum or not... Walk walk walk, and you'll see this restaurant called 大同酒家 Da Tong Restaurant facing the river - oh the best 蛋达custard tart! Very good 烧鹅 roasted geese too. Walk on and you'll see abuilding very similar to the Flat Iron in NYC - yes this is 爱群大厦 Ai Qun Tower and it was designed with inspirations from the Flat Iron. Used to be one of the best hotels in Asia - well back in the 20/30s. From there you can either carry on walking along the river bank all the way to 天字码头 Tian Zi Pier, or walk along the other side of 爱群大厦 where again lots of eateries and everything...

4. 北京路 Bei Jing Road

Not far away from 天字码头 Tian Zi Pier this is another pedestrian shopping area. Check out the display on one section of the road of these layers of ancient roads from different dynasties.

5. 四大丛林the Big Four Buddhist temples in Guangzhou

光孝寺 Guang Xiao Temple (越秀区净慧路 Jing Hui Road, Yue Xiu District): This is the oldest Buddhist temple in Guangzhou and one of the oldest in China.
六榕寺 Liu Rong Temple (越秀区六榕路 Liu Rong Road, Yue Xiu District): another old temple with a nice pagoda inside which isopen to tourists.
华林寺 Hua Lin Temple (as above)
海幢寺 Hai Zhuang Temple (in 海珠区同福中路 Tong Fu Zhong Road, Hai Zhu District): this is about 15 minutes walk from where I grew up.It used to be really dilapidated when I was a child, and it's part of a park 海幢公园 Hai Zhuang Park. Now the park is part of the temple...

6. 南越王博物馆 Nan Yue Kingdom Museum, 三元宫 San Yuan Temple

Address: 解放北路867号
867 Jie Fang Bei Road

The site of the ancient kingdom's palace near the modern day 越秀公园 Yue Xiu Park, now a museum for the 南越 Nan Yue dynasty, a small kingdom (the first also) established in Guangzhou which later became part of China. Also worth checking out 兰圃, an orchid garden nearby.

三元宫 San Yuan Temple is the oldest Taoist temple in Guangzhou and is situated on 应元路 Ying Yuan Road which is on the south side of 越秀山 Yue Xiu Mountain.

7. 二沙岛 Er Sha Island

A recently established posh neighbourhood - not much to say about it but there's a good gallery there for contemporary art items esp those from local artists: 广东美术馆 Guangdong Gallery, 二沙岛烟雨路38号 38 Yan Yu Road, Er Sha Island. It's also next to a new concerthall, 星海音乐厅 Xing Hai Concert Hall. Hmm and it's next to one of the most expensive French restaurants in town, La Seine...

8. University campuses

中山大学 Sun Yat-Sen Uni (in 海珠区 Hai Zhu District): most beautiful campus in Guangzhou. Lots of old buildings, a nice river side piaza, and plenty of people watching opportunities ;) Oh and it's next to my high school 广州第六中学 Guangzhou No 6 Middle School. Also near the university there's an old Taoist temple 纯阳观 Chun Yang Temple which is hidden inside a massive texture market (中大布匹市场 Zhong Da Texture Market). One of the oldest in town but a pain to find...

华南理工大学 South China Uni of Tech: right, let's put things in perspective - this is where Istudied! Hohoho. Huge campus too; not as pretty as 中山大学(hey this is ascience and engineering uni).

9. 中山纪念堂 Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall

A hall built on 东风中路 Dong Feng Zhong Road as a memorial to 孙中山 Sun Yat-Sen, probably the most important Cantonese politician, at least in modern times.

10. 琶洲 Pazhou, 黄埔古港 Huangpu Ancient Port

These are in the east of 海珠区 Hai Zhu District. The Pa Zhou Pagoda 琶洲塔 is one of the three most famous ancient pagoda's in the area (the other two being 赤岗塔 Chi Gang Pagoda which is not far away, and 莲花塔 Lotus Pagoda which is in 番禺 Panyu, a bit of distance from central Guangzhou). The ancient port at Huangpu (黄埔古港) is in a village 黄埔村 in the southeast of 海珠区. In the Ming and Qing dynasties this was the only port in China open to foreign trade. They have refurbished temples museumsetc. It'd also be nice to stroll around the village.

11. The river ferry

Don't bother with the tourist cruises (eg 珠江夜游). Rip off. Instead use the commuters' ferry service - cheap, cheerful and local. I heard talks about renovating the ships with models similar to the Thames Clippers in London which are very nice; however I miss the old ones which were noisy like hell - very atmospheric. A suggested route would be from 中大码头 Sun Yat-Sen Uni Pier (next to the piaza to the north of the campus) to 天字码头 Tian Zi Pier, or from 黄沙码头 Huang Sha Pier (near 沙面) to 石围塘码头 Shi Wei Tang Pier which is in 芳村 Fang Cun. There used to be a nostalgic scene there reminiscent of the 70s/80s with industrial establishments etc; all gone now I'm afraid. I think there's at least another ferry pier in 芳村 but I'm not sure.

12. The German church

It's near a ferry pier, 芳村联合围码头 Lian He Wei Pier Fang Cun, on 信义路 Xin Yi Road, not far from a hospital forthe psychics (not trying to imply anything here...). But there are local news about plans to move the whole thing to a nearby location since a new tunnel will be built.

13. Food

Right, this is what I'm most proud of but I hesitate to make any recommendations apart from the traditional fixtures above, since the Guangzhou dining scene changes with the blink of the eye. If I can get hold of a couple of local contacts for you I'm sure they can recommend good places. Then again there are seasonal stuff you should try:荔枝 lychee, 龙眼 Long Ngan ("dragon's eyes"), 冬瓜water melon dishes,海带绿豆沙green lentil soup (sweet) with seaweed...

14. 东山

In the early 20th century this used to be outside of the city centre and attracted many local dignitaries to build houses here (think Chiswick). These houses were built in a hybrid style with western influences. It's always an escape from the general madness of the city. Stroll around these roads/streets: 新河浦 Xin He Pu, 恤孤院路 Xu Gu Yuan Road, 庙前西街 Miao Qian Xi Street (where there are a lot of shops that sell big label samples from the Pearl RiverDelta factories - you see most of Made in China are actually Made inPearl River Delta, and while most of these big label products go for ridiculous prices in the west, some samples stay humbly to their rootshere), most of which along a small canal called 新河浦 Xin He Pu.

A few interesting ones to watch out for:

春园 Chun Garden: 新河浦路24号春园 24 Xin He Pu Road. Where Mao Ze Dong and a few important early Chinese Communists used to stay. BTW since Guangzhou was one of the important bases for the Chinese Communist Party, there are quite a few such sites in the city. One of them is 恤孤院路３号 3 Xu Gu Yuan Road. Well you don't seem to be a fans of communism, still it's a German export...

可园 Ke Garden：恤孤院后街一号 1 Xu Gu Yuan Hou Street

隅园 Ou Garden：寺贝通津42号 42 Si Bei Tong Jin

陈济棠公馆 Chen Ji Tang Mansion：中山一路梅花村 Mei Hua Cun, Zhong Shan Yi Road. This was the official residence of 陈济棠 Chen Ji Tang who used to control 广东 Guangdong in the 30s.

白崇禧公馆 Bai Chong Xi Mansion：at the junction of 达道路 Dao Dao Road and 烟敦路 Yan Dun Road. 白崇禧 Bai Chong Xi is a famous Nationalist general in the World War II. This was his official residence inGuangzhou. His son, 白先勇 Bai Xian Yong, is a famous writer in Taiwan. One of his most important works, 台北人 The Taipei-ers, is a nod to the great Dubliners by James Joyce.

The 东山 Dong Shan mansions are notably different from the 西关 Xi Guan mansions, in that the former has more western influences and are mostly built with red bricks, while the latter has more traditional outlooks and most of them have dark green stones as facade. There's a saying: 东山少爷, 西关小姐. Since 东山 residents were mostly government big shots, their sons are surely 少爷(young masters); on the other hand 西关 were resided by the rich merchants and surely they could afford a luxury or two for their daughters 小姐. A summary of the old day glamours.

15. 怀圣寺 Huai Sheng Mosque (on 光塔路 Guang Ta Road).

China's oldest mosque, it was built around mid 7th century by an Arabic missionary (or merchant?). A bit dilapidated now but still worth a visit. There's a pagoda in the mosque which used to serve as a signal tower, since the site was close to the river in ancient times. 光塔路 Guang Ta Road used to be a muslim neighbourhoodhabited by Arabic merchants who came to Guangzhou to trade in the Tang dynasty.

16. 石室 "The Stone Chamber" Sacred Heart Cathedral (on 一德路, near 海珠广场 Hai Zhu Square)

This is an impressive stone Gothic cathedral (one of four in the world), designed by French architects and took local workers 25 years to build (1863 - 1888). It is situated in a rather chaotic market for dried food, which only makes the contrast in atmosphere even more dramatic. On the facade you can find two signs that read Jerusalem, noting one of the base stones was shipped all the way from there; the other Rome, since they shipped some soil from Rome that carries some symbolic importance (which I don't understand). Very exotic.