Guangzhou was our last stop in the mainland China part of our 4 month long journey. I was surprised to learn that its history was no less significant than the other cities we had explored. We decided to spend 5 days in Guangzhou because both my wife and me are Cantonese and want to discover more about our heritage. Born a Cantonese, I thought I knew a thing or two about Canton (Guangzhou). However, after visiting their museums, I realized that I had never truly appreciate Guangzhou and its role in the Chinese story.
In fact, Guangzhou used to be the only open port in all of China during the Qing Dynasty. Even in other times, even when there were other open ports, Guangzhou remained the primary port. It was the primary port in China for the Maritime Silk Road. Merchants from all over used to come here to trade. The people here were proud to be the first modernized city after China established an open policy. They also prided themselves with their connections to the western world. In fact, the artifacts displayed in Guangzhou museums had many western influences and the quality was comparable to the ones we saw in Beijing or Xi’an.
High speed railway (HSR)
Guangzhou is a major city in southern China. There are high speed trains going from all over China into Guangzhou. We travelled to the Guangzhou South railway station (广州南站) and transferred to our hotel using the metro. Compare to Guilin (our previous stop), Guangzhou was a lot more modern and more orderly.
Public transit
The streets of Guangzhou were wide and easy to navigate. Guangzhou Metro was one of the most extensive metro network in China. You can reach most of the city's attraction using the metro. Places not reachable by metro were served by bus. We were able to go to every attraction we want either by taking the metro or the bus. Announcements in public transit were made in Mandarin, English, and Cantonese.
Sanitary conditions
The problem of spitting was not as prevalent as in other China cities. However, for me, it had other sanitary issue.
Other than international fast food chain like McDonald’s or KFC, most of the local Guangzhou restaurants did not have water nor public washroom. Many of them didn’t even have a faucet to wash your hands. Public washrooms were a lot scarcer than other cities. The lack of basic sanitary facilities in a hot and humid place is not a good idea for public health.
Staying
At Guangzhou, we stayed at Ben Shu Jia Apartment (Pazhou Branch). It was close to metro station and a big shopping mall. On the way to the shopping mall are some local restaurants and fruit stores. Location-wise, it is a perfect place to stay. However, we did a few cockroaches inside the room. Since it was the kids' first encounter with the cockroaches. They were both fascinated and horrified. The cockroaches were of the smaller kind and would not fly. I told them to be prepared for the bigger and flying ones when we travelled to Hong Kong.