To me, Guangzhou - the old district Guangzhou city (广州市) and the new district in Tianhe (天河).
Food
Most of the popular and famous restaurants are available in more than one locations.
Dim Sum/Cantonese Food (Must try?)
Taotaoju 陶陶居
A famous (made even more famous by Janet Yellen's visit when she was in Guangzhou) Michellin Cantonese restuarant in Guangzhou. My go-to location is Guangzhou East Rail Mall.
Changlai Xiaoju 常来小聚
Changlai has had a Bib Gourmand rating from 2018-2023. It is usually my go-to-eatery because the food and one of its restaurant is in ICC Guangzhou (which is across the street from the apartment). The double-boiled soup is famous and delicious.
Diandude 点都德
It was established in 1933 and is one of GuangDong's famous dim-sum restaurants. It is also one of my go-to eateries. However, when there are insufficient seats during a visit, I will order-in/delivery for the dim-sum. Most of the dim-sum is tasty. Do try 红米肠 and the huge 油条.
Other restaurants/food
客语 is one of my favourite eateries for its tasty and reasonably-priced Hakka food.
Most of the milk-tea stores serve well-prepared beverages. Zyun Yee (专二) , a specialty shop that sells milk tea and lemon tea is one of my favorites (arrival day's drink since the shop is at CITIC Plaza, next to the apartment 😊)
At ICC, 海门鱼仔店 - Teochew seafood restaurant has a good selections of teochew cuisine.
Many of the 现炒快餐 - self-service ready-made fast food eateries serving varied dishes are good.
太艮煲毋米粥 Porridge Restaurant - it has a wide selection of dishes and seafood to complement its famed porridge <<The founder used to work for the former Singapore PM>>
Another popular dimsum restaurant is the Guangzhou restaurant 广州酒家 (If you need to eat dimsum again).
食味鲜 - steamed seafood set meal. Other than the seafood set (server places the food and sets the timer), it also offers additional varieties of seafood at extra cost.
Dessert stalls - Many dessert stores in Guangzhou - 仁信， 银记， 文通 , etc.
西贝 Xibei Restaurant offers tasty selection of Inner Mongolian cuisine. 炳胜 (PinSheng) is one of the well-known premier michellin cantonese restaurants.
There are also many cuisines from other regions of China available in Guangzhou. Because of the competition, most of them have relative good standards.
<<The challenge is too many options, too few food slots and always full rarely hungry>>
Attractions?
<For me, taobao 淘宝 while sipping iced milk tea 😋 or because from over-eating, thus walking the stadium after dinner 😯 or making attempts to train Toto>
Canton Tower / HuaCheng 花城 area
Canton Tower, Opera Theatre, museum and the library are within short walking distance from one another.
A evening walk can be enjoyable.
Old District - 沙面岛 Shamian
It has an area of about 0.03square km. In the 19th century, the island was divided into two concessions and given to the French and UK. Now, it served as a reminder of the colonial period lined by historical buildings and bronze statues.
Around shamian area:
- Huangsha aquatic products market 黄沙水产交易市场
- QingPing medicinal market 清平中药材专业市场
-Sacred Heart Heart Cathedral 石室圣心大教堂
白云山 BaiYunShan
It covers an area of about 21 km and is the only national scenic area in Guangzhou.
永庆坊 YongQinFang /上下九路 ShangXiaJiu Road) and 北京路 (Beijing Road)
永庆坊 is a cultural and historial district, and a popular tourist spot.
上下九路 and 北京路 are the old commercial/and shopping districts to get a glimpse of old city centre.
Shopping (my best guess)?
<Not too sure as I shop mainly on TaoBao 淘宝> 😉
TianHe district - spanning from HuaCheng 花城广场 to along TianHeLu 天河路, and then across the stadium to 天河北路 and Guangzhou East Railway station 广州东站. TianHeLu 天河路 is one of the the main shopping road and area.
Other than TianHe area, there's also shopping in the old district at 上下九路 and 北京路 <<I did not shop there, but did walk/see/eat there 😊>>
Maybe useful info
While in China/Guangzhou, download the followings:
- Dianping (for dining / food suggestions),
- Didi (for transport)
- Amap (map)
- WeChat (messaging / payment)
- Alipay (Payment)
Enjoy 😀😋😘
Thoughts
It did not occur to me to write about Guangzhou <<What's there to write?! 😐>>. However as I researched on the places, food and others, it did bring back memories. haha 😄
In a span of less than 40 years (from 1990 when I first travelled to China till now 2025), China has changed much (or maybe tremendous transformation).
Now:
Taobao's orders are usually delivered the next day or two. Grocery and food delivery is within 30 minutes to 1 hour. And the orders can be tracked from the apps.
<1995 - During a project discussion, a foreign logistic company staff commented "Once the goods enter China, we are not able to track them as they are like going into a black-hole">
Almost all payments are via wechat/Alipay and cash is rarely used.
<~2008 Shanghai - I would try to give exact amount for payment to avoid smaller denomination (generally old and very 'well-used'). Credit card could only be used in bigger shops>>
The transport infrastructure has expanded and upgraded tremendously.
<1990 - Trains from Guangzhou to Beijing took 30+ hours as compared to about 7 hours now> However, I'm still hoping the rides can be less noisy (chatting and videos) and the passengers are less hurried and not rushing
I look forward to my next trip in China (during the off peak season) 😚
Reminiscing
1990 Guangzhou - Beijing
Sailed from HongKong to Guangzhou, my first China city for the train ride to Europe. I stayed at a hostel in Shamian (where the Polish Embassy was located) so that I could apply for its visa.
I had to declare and exchange the Foreign Exchange Currency (FEC for foreigners , Renminbi 人民币 for locals) at the Customs. While walking on the street, I was approached almost incessantly by the locals to exchange my FEC for RMB and help them (in exchange for monetary benefit and I did not need to use my FEC, but to show my customs form and passport) to purchase electrical goods in the Friendship Store for foreigners with FEC.
Out of curosity (mainly greed la), I agreed. Based on my FEC declaration, I could purchase a refrigerator and a TV. I accompanied the guy to the shop, showed my passport/customs form, and after a short exchange of conversation (I believed I was 'taught' what to say to the staff), I signed a form, paid (with their FEC) and the transaction was done. As I got out of the shop, I could see that a refrigerator and a TV being carted out. I could not remember how much FEC I had, but it helped to earn US$100(?) and also very favourable exchange of RMB with him.
AND I was never approached again to purchase good (Most likely labelled as 'USED'?) but touters were still keen with exchanging FEC.
From Guangzhou, I took a 30+ hours train (hard-sleeper) to Beijing (to take the Trans-Siberian). Unable to find a rubbish bin on the train, I asked the crew walking pass.
Me: "I can't find the rubbish bin to throw my trash"
... A stare and she took my plastic bag and threw it out of the window !!!
<<I looked out of the window, and could see LOTS OF rubbish strewn by the track 😲>>
Arrival in Beijing - The tour agency (whom I had sent money - US$180(?) to buy the Beijing - Moscow - Berlin train ticket) had converted a hotel room to an office. Thus, many of the foreign travellers who booked the train tickets, also booked in the hotel.
At the small hotel reception desk, many gathered (swarmed?) around the staff trying to check in/out or to query . The overwhelmed (was she or she was just not that service-oriented/unhappy getting similar(communal?) pay to others who's not that busy?) staff was shouting and scolding (in Chinese) at the guests when they could not comprehend her. <<Hopefully, the non-chinese speaking travellers did not know they were scolded, and assumed the staff was talking loudly? 😔😶. I was spared the agony 😶>>
By the way, the agency was called Monkey Business(really).
Thanks to Fumi's chat about his Asia - Europe travel when he visited Singapore that I also decided to embark on the train ride the next year (Fumi whom I knew from OR took the train from Beijing to one of the European city and then to Singapore (1989). He said summer is too hot) <<I did the rail in November 90 from Guangzhou - Beijing - Moscow - Warsaw - Berlin - Stockholm - Paris - London 😊>>
Thinking about it now, it was amazing to travel then by gathering information from travel books in library/book shops and finding out from talking with others; changing traveller-checks, booking hotels via expensive oversea calls/writing a letter or just hope for the best.
More than travelling to the new destinations, the history of the countries and the interaction with the locals or the nicest strangers (turned temporary travel partners) or the crooks (exchange of fake rouble) did make it a memorable trip.
1994/95 K's Guangzhou 1-year posting
Discovery of office lunch-time norm - sleeping (with foldable bed) after lunch.
Chatting with the staff/locals
- XiaoH's rubbing her eyes hard to cry with the rest of the classmate on hearing the passing Chinese leader's news
- Min's wife (working for a US company) relating her training (Question: if you happen to hear your competitor talking about its business plan in a cafe, do you (a) continue to listen (b) walk away ? The answer of course was (b) 😶 but but ... 😶😏😉😈
- Aspiration to do well by joining a private enterprise, and the challenges/the differences
Learning ceramic history and buying affordable pieces from antique shops <<By then, the currency is RMB and no more FEC>>.
The sights and sounds of former QingPing market (清平市场）selling almost all kinds of live animals for consumption 😵
Walking Shamian and White-Swan Hotel (the occasional seeing groups of foreigners with local adopted babies)
Getting restless and bored, I cut short my 1-year no-pay-leave to live in Guangzhou to 2 months (I was assigned to work on a Vancouver project, and thus able to stop-over in Hong Kong (then to Guangzhou) whenever I travelled for work 😉).
Now such memories are good to look back on for a laugh 😀😆 although I might have complained (?) then 😠😟😒😊
Hopefully, I could continue to explore to create memories to laugh at 😊