Guangzhou 广州Guǎngzhōu

About Guangzhou

Zhao Tuo made Guangzhou the capital of his Nanyue kingdom in 204 BC, and from 1757 to 1842 it was the only Chinese port open to Western merchants, who traded from the riverside Thirteen Factories. The Nanyue King Museum shows the jade burial suit of the kingdom's second ruler, the Chen Clan Ancestral Hall is dense with carving, and Shamian Island keeps the avenues of its British and French concessions. Baiyun Mountain rises to the north, and the 600-metre Canton Tower to the south.

What to eat in Guangzhou

• Sampan congee (艇仔粥)
• Shahe rice noodles (沙河粉)
• Ginger milk curd (姜撞奶)

Featured places in Guangzhou

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  Canton Tower & Pearl River 广州塔

  A slim-waisted tower glowing over the Pearl River in China's Cantonese food capital

  Best time: Oct–Dec · Time needed: An evening, plus a day for the city · 4A scenic area

Listed sites in Guangzhou

55 listed sites are in Guangzhou. These are the 37 rated 5A or 4A; see all 55 in the Guangdong list.

• Baiyun Mountain 白云山 5A scenic area
  Baiyun Mountain is a forested range of many peaks on the northern edge of central Guangzhou, a scenic area since ancient times and a popular place for walks, climbs and views over the city.
• Guangzhou Chimelong Tourist Resort 长隆旅游度假区 5A scenic area
  Chimelong is a large privately run resort in Panyu that grew from a safari park opened in 1997 and now combines the Chimelong Paradise amusement park, Chimelong Safari Park, a water park, a bird park and the indoor Chimelong International Circus with several hotels.
• Baishuizhai Scenic Area 白水寨 4A scenic area · on the map
  Baishuizhai is a mountain scenic area in Paitan, northern Zengcheng, crossed by the Tropic of Cancer and best known for the Baishui Fairy Waterfall, which drops from a reservoir high on the slope.
• Baomo Garden 宝墨园 4A scenic area
  Baomo Garden in Zini village, Shawan, began as a Qing shrine to the Song official Bao Zheng, was destroyed in the 1950s and has been rebuilt since 1995 into a large garden in Lingnan style.
• Beijing Road Pedestrian Street 北京路 4A scenic area
  Beijing Road has been a main street of central Guangzhou for centuries: the city's double gate tower stood here from 1244, and in the Qing the street was known for bookshops, antiques and its flower market.
• Bishuiwan Hot Spring Resort 碧水湾温泉度假村 4A scenic area · on the map
  A hot-spring hotel resort on the banks of the Liuxi River in Conghua's hot-spring area, opened in 2002 by the civil aviation air traffic bureau for central and southern China.
• Chen Clan Ancestral Hall 陈家祠 4A scenic area · National heritage site
  Built in 1888–94 with funds from Chen clans across Guangdong's 72 counties, this combined ancestral hall and academy gave lodging to clan members sitting the imperial examinations in Guangzhou.
• Grandview Mall 正佳广场 4A scenic area
  Opened in 2005 at the junction of Tianhe Road and Tiyu East Road, Grandview is one of the largest shopping centres in southern China and in 2011 became one of the few malls in the country rated as a 4A scenic area.
• Greater Bay Area Central Wetland Park (Nansha Wetland) 大湾区中央湿地公园 4A scenic area
  Created on reclaimed mudflats at the mouth of the Pearl River in Wanqingsha, this wetland was planted with mangroves from the 1990s and opened to visitors in 2008, and it is the largest coastal wetland in Guangzhou.
• Guangdong Science Center 广东科学中心 4A scenic area
  Opened in 2008 at the western tip of Xiaoguwei Island, the Guangdong Science Center is a large hands-on science museum whose ship-shaped building was certified by Guinness World Records in 2018 as the largest science centre by indoor floor area.
• Guangzhou Martyrs' Memorial Garden 广州起义烈士陵园 4A scenic area · National heritage site
  Laid out in 1954–57 as a memorial park for those killed in the Communist-led Guangzhou Uprising of December 1927, the garden holds the communal tomb of the uprising dead, pavilions commemorating Chinese–Korean and Chinese–Soviet solidarity, and the Tomb of the Four Martyrs of Honghuagang from the 1911 revolution.
• Guangzhou Sunac Land 广州融创文旅城 4A scenic area · on the map
  Opened in 2019 in northern Huadu, Sunac Land is a large leisure complex begun by Wanda and completed by Sunac, combining a theme park, an indoor snow park, an indoor water park, a sports centre and a shopping mall.
• Guangzhou Uprising Memorial Museum (Guangzhou Commune Site) 广州起义纪念馆 4A scenic area · National heritage site
  The former Guangdong provincial capital police headquarters on Qiyi Road was stormed on 11 December 1927 in the Communist-led Guangzhou Uprising, and the next day the Guangzhou Soviet, or Guangzhou Commune, was proclaimed here before being suppressed within three days.
• Guangzhou Urban Planning Exhibition Center 广州市城市规划展览中心 4A scenic area
  Designed by the architect He Jingtang and set at the western foot of Baiyun Mountain in the new Baiyun district, this exhibition centre tells the story of Guangzhou's history and planning.
• Guangzhou Zoo 广州动物园 4A scenic area
  Opened on its present site in 1958, Guangzhou Zoo is counted with those of Beijing and Shanghai among China's three major city zoos, with animals grouped into areas for insects, reptiles and amphibians, birds, primates, big cats and herbivores.
• Haizhu National Wetland Park 海珠湿地 4A scenic area · on the map
  Haizhu Wetland is a semi-natural wetland of orchards, canals and lakes in south-eastern Haizhu District, long known locally as the 'ten-thousand-mu orchard' and now a national wetland park surrounded by the city.
• Huanghuagang Mausoleum of the 72 Martyrs 黄花岗七十二烈士墓 4A scenic area · National heritage site
  This memorial park holds the tomb of the revolutionaries killed in the failed Huanghuagang uprising of April 1911 against the Qing, organised by Sun Yat-sen's Tongmenghui, whose remains were gathered and buried here by Pan Dawei.
• Jiulong Lake Resort 九龙湖 4A scenic area · on the map
  Jiulong Lake is a resort area in the hills of Huadong, Huadu, set around a large lake and wooded hills, whose golf club hosted the golf events of the 2010 Asian Games.
• Lingnan Impression Park 岭南印象园 4A scenic area · on the map
  When Lianxi village was cleared in 2003 to build the Higher Education Mega Center, several of its old buildings, including ancestral halls and oyster-shell walls, were kept and restored, and some houses were moved here from elsewhere on the island, alongside new buildings in traditional Lingnan style.
• Lotus Hill (Lianhuashan) 莲花山 4A scenic area · National heritage site
  Lotus Hill is a low hill on the Shiziyang channel of the Pearl River that was quarried for stone from the Western Han to the mid-19th century, leaving sheer cliffs, stone pillars, caves and pools now protected as an ancient quarry site.
• Maofeng Mountain Forest Park 帽峰山森林公园 4A scenic area
  Maofeng Mountain is a forested range in Taihe, northern Baiyun District, whose main peak is the highest in Guangzhou's old urban districts.
• Nanhai God Temple (Temple of the South Sea God) 南海神庙 4A scenic area · National heritage site
  Founded in 594 under the Sui dynasty, this is the only one of China's four imperial temples to the gods of the seas to survive, and officials came here to sacrifice for safe voyages, making it a landmark of Guangzhou's maritime trade.
• Nansha Tianhou Temple 南沙天后宫 4A scenic area
  Rebuilt in 1996 with funds from the Hong Kong businessman Henry Fok on the site of a Ming-dynasty shrine, this large temple to Mazu, the sea goddess Tianhou, climbs the south-east slope of Dajiao Hill above the Pearl River estuary.
• Nanyue King Museum (Mausoleum of the Nanyue King) 南越王博物院 4A scenic area · National heritage site
  The museum is built over the stone tomb of Zhao Mo, second king of Nanyue, who ruled from Guangzhou in the second century BC; it was found in 1983 when a hill was cut down for building work, and visitors can go down into the burial chambers.
• Peasant Movement Training Institute 广州农民运动讲习所旧址 4A scenic area · National heritage site
  The institute occupies the former Panyu Confucian school, founded in 1370 and given its present layout in 1747, whose Lingxing Gate, semicircular pond with arched bridge, Dacheng Hall and side corridors survive.
• Shawan Ancient Town 沙湾古镇 4A scenic area · National heritage site
  Shawan is a Pearl River Delta town founded in the Song dynasty, whose old lanes and ancestral halls form a historic quarter known as a birthplace of Guangdong music and of ginger milk curd, a local dessert.
• Shennong Caotang Museum of Traditional Chinese Medicine 神农草堂中医药博物馆 4A scenic area · on the map
  Opened in 2006 by the Baiyunshan Hutchison Whampoa traditional-medicine company beside its works in Baiyun District, this museum of traditional Chinese medicine is laid out as a garden, with exhibition halls set among beds of growing medicinal herbs.
• Shimen National Forest Park 石门国家森林公园 4A scenic area · on the map
  Shimen is a national forest park in the hills of north-eastern Conghua, based on the Daling Mountain forest farm and covered with some of the best-preserved subtropical evergreen broadleaf forest in the region.
• Shitouji Mineral Park 石头记矿物园 4A scenic area · on the map
  Opened in 2009 by the Shitouji jewellery company in Huadu's jewellery town, this mineral park has an outdoor garden of rocks and petrified tree trunks above an underground exhibition of crystals, meteorites, gemstones and ornamental stones.
• Site of the Third National Congress of the Communist Party of China 中共三大会址 4A scenic area · National heritage site
  The Chinese Communist Party held its Third National Congress here in Dongshan from 12 to 20 June 1923, in a rented two-storey house that was destroyed by Japanese bombing in 1938.
• South China National Botanical Garden 华南国家植物园 4A scenic area
  Founded in 1929 as a botanical institute of Sun Yat-sen University and run by the Chinese Academy of Sciences since 1954, the garden was designated the South China National Botanical Garden in 2022.
• Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall 中山纪念堂 4A scenic area · National heritage site
  Built in 1929–31 with funds raised from local and overseas Chinese in memory of Sun Yat-sen, this octagonal hall by the architect Lü Yanzhi stands at the foot of Yuexiu Hill on the old city's north–south axis.
• Tianren Shanshui Land Art Park 天人山水 4A scenic area · on the map
  Tianren Shanshui is a landscaped resort of about 10 square kilometres in the hills of Taiping, Conghua, laid out from 2013 around the Shaxi Reservoir.
• Whampoa Military Academy Site 黄埔军校旧址 4A scenic area · National heritage site
  Sun Yat-sen founded the Army Officer Academy, known as the Whampoa Military Academy, here on Changzhou Island in 1924, in the buildings of a Qing army school, to train officers during the first Kuomintang–Communist alliance.
• Yongqingfang 永庆坊 4A scenic area
  Yongqingfang is a block of old Xiguan lanes off Enning Road that was renovated by the district government and Vanke and opened in 2016 as a pedestrian quarter of shops, cafés and studios among old houses.
• Yuexiu Park and Zhenhai Tower 越秀公园 4A scenic area · National heritage site
  Yuexiu Park covers Yuexiu Hill, the low hill that formed the northern end of the walled city, and was made a public park on Sun Yat-sen's orders in the 1920s.
• Yuyin Shanfang (Yuyin Garden) 余荫山房 4A scenic area · National heritage site
  Yuyin Shanfang is a private garden built in 1867–71 for the Qing scholar-official Wu Bin in Nancun, Panyu, and is counted among the four famous gardens of Guangdong.

All 55 listed sites in Guangzhou

Getting to Guangzhou

Train, flight and driving times from the cities most visitors come from, with stations, fares and how many run a day; each opens the full comparison.

• Shenzhen 深圳 high-speed train 29 min, 295 a day, from ¥75
• Hong Kong 香港 high-speed train 48 min, 50 a day, from ¥215; 3 nonstop flights a day, 1 h 10 min in the air
• Guilin 桂林 high-speed train 2 h 4 min, 62 a day, from ¥223
• Nanning 南宁 high-speed train 2 h 45 min, 63 a day, from ¥250; 2 nonstop flights a day, 1 h 40 min in the air
• Xiamen 厦门 high-speed train 3 h 24 min, 21 a day, from ¥303; 6 nonstop flights a day, 1 h 40 min in the air
• Changsha 长沙 high-speed train 1 h 57 min, 149 a day, from ¥319; 3 nonstop flights a day, 1 h 20 min in the air
• Sanya 三亚 train 16 h 20 min, 2 a day, from ¥232; 11 nonstop flights a day, 1 h 40 min in the air
• Wuhan 武汉 high-speed train 3 h 18 min, 97 a day, from ¥553; 11 nonstop flights a day, 2 h in the air
• Chongqing 重庆 high-speed train 5 h 46 min, 31 a day, from ¥508; 19 nonstop flights a day, 2 h 5 min in the air
• Hangzhou 杭州 high-speed train 5 h 26 min, 16 a day, from ¥768; 33 nonstop flights a day, 2 h 30 min in the air
• Kunming 昆明 high-speed train 6 h 42 min, 20 a day, from ¥647; 19 nonstop flights a day, 2 h 5 min in the air
• Nanjing 南京 high-speed train 6 h 31 min, 6 a day, from ¥756; 20 nonstop flights a day, 2 h 30 min in the air
• Shanghai 上海 high-speed train 6 h 14 min, 11 a day, from ¥855; 57 nonstop flights a day, 2 h 35 min in the air
• Beijing 北京 high-speed train 7 h 17 min, 12 a day, from ¥1033; 44 nonstop flights a day, 3 h 25 min in the air

Where you can get to from Guangzhou in a day · All routes

Trips with Guangzhou

• Hong Kong, Macau and Guangzhou in five days 5 days · Hong Kong, Macau and Guangzhou

On the map

Open Guangzhou on the illustrated map to see its outline, its places and listed sites together, and to add them to a trip.

Learn more

• Wikipedia
• Official website
• Wikipedia (Chinese)