Guangzhou, Canton at the Table
Guangzhou has traded with the outside world for longer than almost any city in China, and Canton's long habit of dealing with strangers still shows — in the Middle Eastern restaurants of Xiaobei, the African market streets around Sanyuanli, and the twice-yearly Canton Fair that fills entire hotels. The Pearl River runs through the middle of it, and the simplest good evening here is a night ferry or a slow walk along the promenade with the Canton Tower twisting pink and violet on the far bank.
History is easy to reach. Shamian Island keeps its banyan-shaded avenues of colonial banks and consulates from the concession era. The Chen Clan Ancestral Hall of 1894 is a showcase of Cantonese craft — ridge friezes of glazed figures, carved granite, ironwork and blackwood. Yuexiu Park holds the Five Rams statue of the city's founding myth and a stretch of Ming wall; the Temple of the Six Banyan Trees has its Flowery Pagoda; and the Nanyue King Museum displays a jade burial suit from a 2,000-year-old tomb found under a department store.
But the reason to be here is breakfast. Yum cha means hours over tea and steamer baskets — har gow, siu mai, cheung fun, lotus-leaf rice, egg tarts — in old teahouses around Liwan and Shangxiajiu, followed later by roast goose, wonton noodles, double-boiled soups and late-night congee. Autumn and winter are the pleasant seasons; summer is hot and wet, though the kapok trees make spring worth it. Guangzhou pairs naturally with Hong Kong and Guilin in southern China.
Trips Across Tours to China
China's Golden Triangle
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