Coming in from Hong Kong, we took the adventure of traveling in their intercity trains. We arrived at Guangzhou East station. Again, having the benefits of the ability to speak Mandarin and some of the local dialect (my mother-in-law speaks Cantonese), we managed to get another private hire and head to our serviced apartment. Maybe more expensive than local taxis but because we are a group of 7 people, we chose to stay together instead of split vehicles.
We heard that this city has become the new Bangkok, where many retail businesses come here to look for new products or if there is a design done, look for producers to help you
Day 1 – Beijing Road
We got ourselves checked-in into a serviced apartment along the busy Beijing Street, the building was also situated above a big shopping mall. Everything was just as convenient as it can be. You would be entertained by the funny English translations on signs, seemingly using some dubious online translators.
2 King sized bed at the loft. 1 more down stairs 
Being native speaker of English and Mandarin, I can’t tolerate this type of translations. LMAO.
Nothing to do but to walk the Beijing Road streets. Modern buildings built on top and around ancient cities, and monuments. Some effort in preservation being done here.
Ancient structures preserved
We had a sumptuous steamboat dinner. Then walk around the place for more street foods. More sights.
Day 2 – Wholesale Centres
Similar to Hong Kong, we hopped onto the Guangzhou subway. The city subway was rated the best in reliability and comfort, so we just have to try it out. We took the subway to Guangzhou main railway station. The thing about how Guangzhou shopping zones are organized, they concentrate the wholesale/retail of shoes, clothes, toys, electronics in specific zones. So the clothing zone is in the Main Railway Station region – Bai Ma Building for example. We spent the whole day there. No prize for guessing what we did.
Day 3 – Shang Xia Jiu Street
Another Zone near the Yide subway station is where the toys retail and wholesale buildings are situated all around. And we had to buy one luggage bag to contain our haul along the way. From there, we walked to the famous shopping street,
Didn’t you feel safe? Everywhere we went, there were Auxiliary Police Officers. Even in the subway stations, there were metal detectors at every entrance, at every station posted with Auxiliary police. Like having a policeman at every lamp post.
Day 4 – Shop and Eat
Originally planned for sightseeing at the Bai Yun mountain. But by popular demand, we decided to just hang around Beijing Road and continue to eat shop and rest. We visited a bookstore and ended up spending most of our time there. We bought many classical Chinese books. Most of which will be gifts for others. Dinner at a nice buffet restaurant followed but street fruits and snacks nonstop. All the Chinese stores were using QR codes for payment. As we were using cash, we were given some kind look that will embarrass you. I must say that they were much more advanced than a lot of western countries we had been to.
Day 5 – Homebound
Got another private ride to Bai Yun international airport. Home Sweet Home. All in all, we enjoyed Guang Zhou much more than Hong Kong. Not so crowded, better food and things were cheaper in general. Friendlier people too.
gobassky
- Intercity train travel by MTR intercity through trains.
- Accommodation by Agoda (
GuangZhou Hakka Apartments, Beijing Road). - Air travel home by Singapore Airlines.