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| General Information |
 | | So, you've never heard of Guangzhou, China? How about Canton? Of course you have! Now restored to it's former name, the historical city of Guangzhou was known by its foreign-imposed name of Canton, for about 150 years following China's defeat in the opium wars.
The Flower City and the City of Five Goats, two of the nicknames for Guangzhou, testify to its ancient origins and its allure. The five goats were what the five gods (robed in cloth of five colors) rode when they descended from the heavens, each bearing a stem of rice to promise the people that Guangzhou would be a place that would never know famine. The flowers are there in abundance due to its mild climate and good rainfall, allowing a year round growing season. You might find some similarly appreciative and colorful thing to call it after you've sampled its riches.
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| Guangzhou's population is over six and a half million, making it a metropolis by anyone's standards. Its modernity and assimilation of foreign influences will strike you. Guangzhou's always been an international city; one of the chief ports for China, it has a long history of foreign trade. You may expect a world commodities center to have good shopping, and you'd be right. Guangzhou was the terminus of the tea, silk, and jade trades of centuries past, and is still a great place to buy these things. Embroidery, carved ivory, and ceramics are also local specialties, but your shopping opportunities aren't limited to the culturally specific. The outside world has arrived in the form of high fashion and quality imports from all over the world.
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| But it's not just the outside world coming to China. One of Guangzhou's primary exports has been its population, whose presence has been felt in every country of the world, making Cantonese food synonymous with Chinese food everywhere. If you don't know what Cantonese cooking is, then you've been living in a box. Cantonese is one of the four great cuisines of China, and even some French chefs maintain that Chinese cuisine holds first place in the world in its skill of preparation and variety. Make the most of your opportunity and enjoy the real thing in its birthplace.
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| But Guangzhou has much more to offer than food and shopping. Of course, you can't see it all, not nearly, but you can sure try. The central tourist area can be thought of as several districts: the Zhujiang (Pearl River) scenery, the Cultural and Historic Sites Region, The Lingnan Gardens Region, and the Baiyun Hill Tourist Region, each with separate appeal. Choosing carefully will give you the chance to enjoy the natural landscape, get some idea of the Lingnan culture, and soak up the air and ways of the city.
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| The list of available attractions could go on for pages, but to give you an idea of what's available, here are some that you should definitely consider putting on your sightseeing "shopping" list. Certainly the Western Han Nanyue King Tomb Museum should have a place. Although the tomb dates back 2,000 years, it was only discovered in 1983. It is one of the earliest known examples of a painted stone-chamber tomb. The tomb's owner, Zhao Mei, the second emperor of the Nanyue Kingdom, was shrouded in a jade burial suit. The tomb also contained the gold seal of the emperor, copper doors, ceremonial jars, and lots of jade ornaments. The remains are housed in a world-class museum that is the pride of Guangzhou.
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| The Guangxiao Temple, a Buddhist temple dating back 1500 years, has been a destination for Buddhist monks from the world over since the Jin Dynasty (317-420). You can see the Sleeping Buddha statue, bodhi trees, and the East and West Iron Pagodas. With pagodas in mind, the Temple of the Six Banyan Trees and Flower Pagoda, another renowned Buddhist cultural site, could be next in line. Nearly 800 feet and nine stories tall on the outside, it has seventeen inside, and houses the largest copper Buddha statues in the province.
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| To bring you back to this century for a minute, the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall is an architectural landmark. Erected as a monument to the Chinese Revolution, it is an imposing complex of buildings centering on a large auditorium. Its large vermilion pillars, yellow bricks, and blue glazed tiles give it an air of splendor. The Ancestral Temple of The Chen Family is also a bit more recent, although not quite modern. A stunning example of 19th century religious architecture, it's comprised of a complex of nineteen buildings, which were the ancestral temple and "study" for the Chen clan's 72 families. (One man's study is another man's small town!) You'll be impressed with beauty and variety of the decoration: wood, brick, and stone carving; clay and ash sculpture; and cast brass and iron, among other techniques. It covers almost fifty thousand square feet.
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| If you want to see how modern an ancient city can be, there are two new attractions that will boggle you. The first is the Spaceflight Wonders exhibit built and developed by the peasants of the Tianhe Township suburb with money they raised themselves. It's a tribute to space exploration, with a full-size mock-up of the Space Shuttle standing next to two other real rockets, one of which is China's largest and most advanced, the "Changzen 3R." (Talk about enterprise zones.) The other attraction is the Grand World Scenarios Park, where you can travel "around the world" in a few hours. It consists of full-size models of natural scenery, architecture, folkways, and recreational activities of cultures from all over the globe. The exhibits look real enough to make you think you've been there.
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| City of Five Goats, Flower City … whatever you choose to call Guangzhou, it'll be a name you say with some real reverence for this beautiful, historically rich city on the Pearl River delta. | |
| General Information |
| POPULATION
6.7 million.
PORT
Xingang, at the mouth of the Pearl River.
CLIMATE
Sub-tropical. It can be hot and humid in summer, with temperatures in the 90s. The occasional typhoon puts in an appearance, but rarely does any damage, and the rainy season lasts from April to August. But you won't need to worry about this; most cruise lines visit China in the mild months of late autumn and spring.
LANGUAGE
Cantonese dialect, very distinct from Mandarin. The Chinese have a big fascination with learning English, and you might be pressed into service as an ad hoc tutor. Idiomatic expressions are favorites.
CURRENCY
The Ren Min Bi (RMB). | |
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