Guangzhou in 3 days: Cantonese food, the old city and a day for business

Guangzhou is the city most Australians pass through without seeing: the Canton Fair is in it, a direct flight from Melbourne lands in it, and a large share of the goods in Australian shops leave through its port. It is also the capital of Cantonese food, the cuisine half of Australia grew up calling “Chinese”, and a city with an old quarter, a colonial island and a riverfront that reward two days of attention. This is the plan we run for clients who add a few days around a fair or a factory visit.

Getting there and around

From Melbourne, China Southern flies non-stop to Guangzhou Baiyun (about 9 h 30 min); otherwise via Hong Kong, Singapore or Shanghai. From Shanghai, two and a half hours by air or six and a half to eight hours by high-speed train to Guangzhou South; the train guide applies. From Hong Kong, the high-speed train from West Kowloon reaches Guangzhou South in 48 minutes, which makes a Hong Kong and Guangzhou combination easy.

Baiyun airport is 45 to 60 minutes north of the centre by car; Guangzhou South station is 40 minutes south. In the city, the metro is extensive and signed in English, and taxis and DiDi are cheap. It is hot and humid most of the year; April and October are the fair months and the pleasantest, December and January are mild and dry.

Where to stay

Tianhe is the modern centre: the tallest towers, the big malls, most of the international hotels, and metro lines 1, 3 and 5. Zhujiang New Town, the new axis between Tianhe and the river, has the opera house, the museum, the library and the best hotel views of Canton Tower. Yuexiu and Liwan, the old city to the west, has fewer international hotels but puts you among the food. For the fair, see the hotel notes in our Canton Fair guide; Pazhou doubles in price and Tianhe is the fallback.

Day 1: the old city and dim sum

Start with yum cha. Guangzhou invented the morning tea house, and the old ones in Liwan and Yuexiu (Guangzhou Restaurant, Tao Tao Ju, Lian Xiang Lou, Panxi by the lake) open before 8 am and are full of families and retirees by nine. Order shrimp dumplings (har gow), siu mai, char siu buns, rice noodle rolls, egg tarts and a pot of pu’er, and take your time; nobody is rushed out of a Guangzhou tea house.

Walk it off in Xiguan, the old merchant quarter of Liwan: Enning Road and the Yongqing Fang lanes (restored, with the Cantonese opera museum and Bruce Lee’s ancestral house), the arcaded shophouses (qilou) of Shangxiajiu pedestrian street, and the Chen Clan Ancestral Hall, the most ornate building in the city, its roofs crowded with ceramic figures. Lunch is wonton noodles or a claypot rice in a lane.

In the afternoon cross to Shamian Island, the former British and French concession: a few streets of colonial villas, banyan trees, cafés and wedding photographers, quiet after the old city. Dinner back in Liwan or Yuexiu: roast goose, steamed fish, clay-pot dishes and the city’s famous congee. Cantonese cooking is about the ingredient, not the sauce; order the fish of the day and let the kitchen steam it.

Day 2: the river, the tower and the new axis

Morning at the Nanyue King Mausoleum Museum, the 2,000-year-old tomb of a local king found under a hill in the city centre, with a jade burial suit that is one of the great objects in China; then the Temple of the Six Banyan Trees and the Guangxiao Temple nearby, both working temples with a calm the city around them lacks.

Afternoon in Zhujiang New Town: the Guangdong Museum (free, booking), the opera house, and a walk south along the axis to the river. Cross or take the metro to Canton Tower; the observation decks and the “bubble tram” around the top are a tourist thing worth doing once at dusk, when the city lights come on. Finish with a Pearl River night cruise from the Tianzi Pier, an hour of lit bridges and skyline, or dinner at one of the riverside restaurants on the Ersha Island side.

Day 3: business, or a day out

For importers, day three is the reason for the trip: the fair at Pazhou, or factory visits. Guangdong’s manufacturing belt is within two hours in every direction: Foshan for furniture, ceramics and appliances; Dongguan for electronics, toys and furniture; Shenzhen for electronics; Zhongshan for lighting; Jiangmen and Kaiping for hardware. A bilingual coordinator, a car and a plan that groups factories by district turns the day into four visits rather than two; our business trips page explains how we run them, and the factory verification guide covers what to look for on the floor.

For travellers, choose one:

• Foshan (40 minutes) for the Ancestral Temple with its lion-dance and kung fu museums, and the Nanfeng ancient kiln, a dragon kiln still firing after 500 years.
• Kaiping (two hours) for the diaolou, the fortified towers built by returned overseas Chinese a century ago in a mix of Chinese and Western styles, UNESCO-listed and set among rice fields; a full day with a car.
• Shenzhen (30 minutes by high-speed train) for the contrast of a city that did not exist 45 years ago, and for its museums and parks; or carry on to Hong Kong in another 20 minutes.

What to eat, in one paragraph

Dim sum at breakfast; wonton noodles, beef brisket noodles or a clay-pot rice at lunch; for dinner, roast goose or char siu from a roast-meat shop, steamed fish with ginger and spring onion, white-cut chicken, stir-fried greens with garlic, and a slow-cooked soup, which Cantonese families regard as medicine. Congee at midnight. The dessert shops (tong sui: sweet soups, mango pudding, double-skin milk) are the city’s late-night culture. Guangzhou is also the place to try dishes Australians never see: salt-baked chicken, steamed lotus-leaf rice, and the market produce that makes the cuisine. Nobody tips, and the tea is free.

Practical notes

• Language. Cantonese is the local language and Mandarin is universal; English is thinner than in Shanghai. Picture menus and Alipay solve most of it; a guide solves the rest.
• Payment. Alipay everywhere, including the tea houses and the river cruise.
• Weather. Humid and hot from May to September with afternoon storms; carry an umbrella all year.
• Fair weeks. Hotels and restaurants near Pazhou are full; book ahead and eat in the old city, where the fair crowd does not go.

How we run it

Most of our Guangzhou bookings are two or three days around the Canton Fair or a factory programme: a bilingual coordinator for the business days and a guide with a car for a food day in the old city, often with the family along. Tell us the dates of the fair or the suppliers you want to see and we build the days around them; the contact page is the place to start.