What to see in Guangzhou during furniture shopping? Guangzhou sightseeing
Furniture shopping takes 5-7 days in general but many customers plan to stay in China more: most of them come during vacation or holiday time and why not to spend a couple of days in Guangzhou. Guangzhou is the third biggest city in China and just 1-hour drive from Foshan.
We've been living in Guangdong, China for a long time and gathered all the best places (In our humble opinion) in Guangzhou that hopefully can interest you. This article will answer questions about what to visit in Guangzhou, where to eat in Guangzhou, best parks in Guangzhou, where Chimelong park in Guangzhou and many more.
YueXiu Park (越秀公园) in Guangzhou
The park is located in the Guangzhou city centre. It has famous “5 rams” monument and a sculpture of guardian spirits of Guangzhou. These art pieces divide lake and hill parts of the park. You can enjoy lakes and take a boat to explore them, the walking paths are excellent and highly recommended for a lazy day walk.
Website: http://www.yuexiupark-gz.com/ecompany.html
Price: 29 yuan
Working hours: 24 hours
Address: 广州市越秀区解放北路988号
Baiyun Mountain (白云山) in Guangzhou
This park takes up 28 square kilometres and consists of 30 peaks, the highest of which is 382 meters. Hiking up the mountain takes way more than one hour and we strongly recommend to take a cable car up (30 yuan going up and 20 yuan going down). There is a 5 yuan entrance fee to some parts of the park.
Deciduous forest occupies 95% of the mountain and is called “Lungs of Guangzhou”. The park is huge, make sure you plan at least half of the day for it.
Price: 20 yuan
Working hours: 24 hours
Address: 广园中路801号
Guangzhou Tower (广州塔)
Guangzhou tower elegant in the day time and shiny and colourful at night. It’s quite expensive to go up the tower and let’s be honest it’s a waste of money during cloudy weather. Entrance fee for Guangzhou tower (460 meters) is about 300 RMB.
Price: 266 yuan
Working hours: 09:30-22:30
Address: 阅江西路222号广州塔
Advise: Go to IFC (International Financial Center) and take a lift to 100th floor to a very ambient cosy bar (with a free entrance) with the same view. Entrance from “4 season hotel”.
Party Pier (琶醍）in Guangzhou
Old Guangzhou pier was rebuilt and transformed into a multi-levelled zone with open terraces. Illumination and unique view of Pearl River. It’s one of the best places in Guangzhou for dining, partying and fancy (and not so much) drinking. More information read in our article.
Working hours: 17:30 - 02:00
Address: 阅江西路磨碟沙大街118号珠江琶醍啤酒文化创意艺术区
Guangzhou Opera House (大剧院)
The design of Guangzhou opera house is the last completed project by Zaha Hadid, the only woman-architect even win Pritzker prize. Its auditorium is easily one of the best in the world for acoustic and equipment allowing to perform and stage the hardest plays and shows.
Unfortunately, there are no public tours inside the Opera house but it’s a delight to watch it day and night time when it illuminates, check out its foyer and even see some of the shows.
Website: http://en.gzdjy.org/
Address: 广东省广州市天河区珠江西路1号
Baomo Garden (宝墨园) in Guangzhou
This garden is Chinese architecture and feng shui perfected to the highest level that one can see anywhere in the world. An atmospheric place with traditional Chinese buildings, art pieces by Chinese masters, miniature waterfalls of inimitable beauty, clear water and huge colourful fish.
Baomo garden consists of 27 small bridges and hundreds of porcelain and metal artworks. The antique collection presented to the park by Zhao Tailai, he donated more than 1000 relics from Chunqiu period (770 - 475 B.C.) to the Qing dynasty (1644 - 1911 гг.).
Park shines with tranquillity and harmony. Get fish food next to the entrance and see something unbelievable. Further inside, in-depth of the garden you’ll find a rosary and a pond with lotus flowers (check the season). There are a few places to eat in the park but you can bring your food and make a little picnic in the lazy shadow of the afternoon sun.
Price:
Adult: 61 yuan/person
Children (under 1.2 m) – free
Working hours:
08:00 - 17:30 (Monday-Friday)
08:30 - 17:45 (Saturday, Sunday)
Address: 广东省广州市番禺区沙湾镇紫坭村村南路
Dafo Temple (大佛寺) in Guangzhou
Dafo Temple was repaired relatively recently - in 2006 but the history of this place goes back to the beginning of the XII century. Halls filled with interesting frescos illustrating the life of saints and different Buddhist proverb. Find a reclining clay Buddha after reaching nirvana in one of the halls and three large statues of historical Buddhas in other.
Go to Gongyuanqian Station, exit C, then to Beijing Road and ask for the Dafo Temple there (there are also Liurong and Guangxiao temples nearby). Another option is to go from Beijing Road Subway Station.
Working hours: 24 hours (the temple itself and prayer hall close for the night but you’re allowed to walk around the area)
Address: 惠福东路惠新中街21号(广百对面)
Beijing Road (北京路) in Guangzhou
The main tourist street of the city, read more about it in our article.
Working hours: 24 hours
Address: 北京路步行街 (近中山五路)
Shangxiajiu Pedestrian Street (上下九) in Guangzhou
The second most popular tourist street is more beautiful at night and is a typical shopping street with a huge number of Chinese snacks, shops of different quality and an enormous number of people.
Working hours: 24 hours
Address: 下九路6号 (上下九步行街)
Chimelong Park (广州长隆旅游度假区) in Guangzhou
Chimelong Amusement park includes a whole range of attractions - Paradise, Safari park, Water park, Zoo and Circus. This Park is larger than Disneyland, plan one whole or several days for it. A whole day for Paradise and a whole day for Safari park.
Best time to visit: weekdays.
Tickets
Tickets are individual to each zone, but there are combined tickets (they are cheaper) for visiting just one or two zones of your choice.
Parks are open until 7 pm, the Circus performance begins at 20.30.
A combined ticket implies exactly 2 consecutive days, you can’t, for example, go to paradise on Monday and for a Safari on Thursday, it should be two days in a row.
Buying tickets - no problem paying with a Visa card.
There are many cafes inside with quite reasonable prices, but you can also take your food (no one checks ;)).
Advice:
- Take cash. Park doesn’t accept Visa or MasterCard, some places accept UnionPay cards. There is one ATM on the entrance/exit but it only accepts UnionPay cards. There are no other ATMs around.
- A lot of attractions accept children 140cm and higher which means they are a priori unsuitable for small kids.
- For water attraction, you have to buy a coat (15 RMB each, only cash accepted).
- Nobody speaks a word of English.
Prices:
Adult ticket - 250 RMB
Children and elderly - 175 RMB (for children under 140 cm).
Address: 广州市番禺区汉溪大道广州长隆旅游度假区售票处
Shamian Island (沙面岛) in Guangzhou
For about a hundred years the island was under colonialists control. They built everything on it for comfort work and life. Only in 1949, the island (not immediately) was transferred to China's government, which in 1996 recognized Shamian (Shameen or Shamin) as an object of cultural significance and opened it to tourists. The island attracts not so much with specific sights, but with its atmosphere. However, it still has something interesting to see.
Working hours: 24 hours
Address: 广州市荔湾区沙面北街53-54号
Chen Clan Ancestral Hall (陈家祠堂) in Guangzhou
The Chen Clan Ancestral Hall is one of the finest family temples in China. The temple was built in 1894 aided by Chen family members donations. This oldest clan encompasses all residents of Guangdong province bearing the surname Chen (or Chan in Cantonese).
The family temple is surrounded by a brick wall and consists of 19 rooms and six courtyards, it combines Chinese, Japanese and Western traditions of building art. The main entrance is decorated with seventeen carved columns, the roof – with carved bricks and clay sculptures; stone beams and railings of balustrades are covered with carvings and bas-reliefs. The massive gates depict animals, birds and historical characters.
This architectural monument embodied all possible forms of Chinese building art: all buildings are decorated with elaborate sculptures made of wood, stone and brick, ceramic figures, frescoes, moulded grilles with scenes from Chinese literature and folklore.
Price: 30 yuan
Working hours: 8:30 - 17:30
Address: 广东省广州市荔湾区中山七路恩龙里34号
Guangzhou is a magical city which makes you fall in love with it in an instance. Guangzhou is a green, multinational and diverse city cultural and food-wise, countless markets and ability to find street food even at 4 am anywhere.
If you’re coming to buy furniture to Foshan and have got a couple of free days, don’t hesitate to visit Guangzhou.