Guang Zhou

The Capital city of Guang Dong Province

Guang Zhou (also known as Canton or Five Goats City), the capital city of Guang Dong province, is situated at the Southern part of China, one of the major busy gateways to Mainland China via Hong Kong or Macao. This place is associated with trade routes, making it a center for foreign commerce for over 2000 years.

The First settlement was founded in third century B.C. (Han Dynasty - B.C. 206 - 220 A.D.), and the first foreign visitors from Rome (Italy) and India were also recorded during this period.

Tang Dynasty (A.D. 714), the first trading port was formally established and officials were appointed to oversee the foreign trades.

In 10th Century, the capital of Southern Han known as Xing Wang Su was established here, which maintained and developed trading relationships with Persian and Arabian traders.

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Choose language version from the ticketing machine, followed by destination station, insert the required fares, a black round token will be dispensed.
Note:- Passengers can get small change from Service Counter in the foyer.

This is Guang Zhou's largest park, covering 93 hectares where the Statue of the Five Goats and Zhen Hai Lou are located inside the Park.

A herd of 5 Goats is the Guang Zhou City symbol. According to the legend, five celestial beings arrived in the area riding on five goats which were bearing bundles of rice, present to the people as an auspicious sign. (symbol of the promise that the region would never suffer famine)

The five story tower located at the hilltop of Yue Xiu Park, built during Ming Dynasty (A.D. 1368 - 1644), is one of the oldest buildings in Guang Zhou. It was a watchtower guarding the city against invasion. Now it is a museum, displaying porcelains, treasures and arts dating from the Han period (B.C. 206 - A.D. 220) to the present day.

(2) Sun Yat Sen Memorial HalL

Dr SUN Yat Sen , "Father of China", originated from Zhong Shan county in Guang Dong Province. The Memorial Hall, in the form of an octagonal theatre, build in a garden which was once the Ching governor official residence of Guang Dong and Guang Xi.

(3) Museum of Southern Yue

This is also known as the Museum of the Western Han Dynasty of the Southern Yue King's Tomb. Southern China was a loose confederation of the "Hundred Yue" nationalities known as Ling Nan in Qin Dynasty 221 BC. After the fall of Qin Dynasty, one of the Generals established his kingdom "Yue" and declared Guang Zhou to be his Capital.

The Tomb was discovered in 1983, 20m. below Elephant Hill, with 15 funerary bodies and numerous sacrificial objects.

Situated in Lui Rong Lu (road), the temple was built in A.D. 479, next to which stands the original pagoda built in A.D. 537.The pagoda was re-built after a fire in 1098.

The pagoda is about 55m high and built on an octagonal base, it appears to have 7 stories if viewed from outside, but actually has 17 stories inside.

Happy Buddha statute at the main entrance

Four Heavenly Guardian statues

(6) Chan Family Temple (Chan Jia Ci)

This is the Chan's family shrine, built between 1890 to 1894 by funds collected amongst the Chan's clan locally and overseas. It consists of numerous inner traditional buildings, courtyards, stone carvings, sculptures and the out standing roofs ridges features that are decorated with figures of deities and colorful interpretations of operatic tales. The best local craftwork is exhibited here.

front entrance

front door

main wooden roof beam (red)

stone carving picture

One must not miss these highly skilled hand-crafted bronze statues with lively expressive facial detailed features that are exhibited around the Chen Family Temple.

(7) Sha Mein

In the Western eyes, Sha Mein is one of the most interesting places in Guang Zhou, originally an uninhabited sand bank, with two small bridges linked to the river banks. During the mid 1850, foreign merchants rebuilt and established a foreign enclave on the reclaimed area of Sha Mein.

Nowadays, walking along the main boulevard, you still can see the worn out old colonial buildings, the restored French Catholic Church, sidewalk cafes, bars, boutiques etc. Polish, German and US Consulates are situated at the far west of the island. Be sure to make a detour to the riverside embankment, where you can slowly walk under the shade of huge banyan trees, watch the multitude of riverboats, or observe the people practicing Tai Chi.

(8) Mausoleum of 72 Martyrs

Located on Yellow Flower Hill (Huang Hua Gang), commemorates those killed in Dr. Sun Yat Sen's unsuccessful uprising against the Ching Dynasty in 1911. The Monument, a mixture of Eastern and Western architectural styles was built in 1918, by funds collected mostly from overseas Chinese.

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Chinese Export Commodities Fair or Guang Zhou Trade Fair is held twice a year, on 15 April and 15 October, lasting for 20 days each time, displaying a vast range of local products and commodities.

Outside Guang Zhou City

Fo Shan

Situated 10 miles south-west of Guang Zhou is a well-known religious center, also known as Buddha Hill. Shi Wan's pottery in Fo Shan is well known over a thousand years, supported by the findings of the excavated sites of several kilns dating back to Song Dynasty (A.D. 960 - 1280).

The pottery artists in Shi Wan are famous for their highly skilled hand-crafted production with lively expressive facial and detailed features of statuesque figures.

One of the present day Shi Wan's pottery items hand crafted by Mr. LIU Ze Mian has been presented to the British Queen during her visit in 1986.

Seven Star Crags

Located about 60 miles south-west of Guang Zhou, near Zhao Qing county. The landscape resembles a miniature Gui Lin in Guang Xi province.

Gourmet Food

"Eat in Guang Zhou" means Guang Zhou is the place where one can try varieties of local Chinese gourmet foods. Some of the descriptions or the names of the dishes are poetic, such as "Flowers floating on the lake, Breeze to the Jade tree, Bird nest...etc", it is quite difficult to guess what it is unless one has ordered it. Besides the name, presentation is also one of their attractions, that one will really hesitate to break up to eat.

From the Editor

We would like to recommend the following restaurant, located on the western part of the city and just north of the Exhibition Center (Ex).

Address:

Mr. LEE Lai Fung (Managing Director), previously worked as a Chef in numerous renowned Hotels and restaurants, then opened his own restaurant based on his experiences, utilizing the fresh local produce to create a variety of dishes and traditional soups.

The rice used is procured directly from the field in Ching Yuen (Yun Tam) , where no polishing process to the rice grains is carried out in order to retain the natural healthy protein, (normally rice grains go through a special polishing process, in order to make it shiny for presentable appearance.) and their vegetables are freshly harvested from the field on regular basis.

We give our thumb's up to their dishes, especially the rice without mentioning the traditional Cantonese healthy soups that one must not miss since "healthy eating" is the present day slogan.

We would like to thank Ms. F. Y. Chu for organizing this trip for us.

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Train to Hong Kong - frequent direct trains to and from Guang Zhou and Hong Kong everyday, two and half hours travel time.

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Pick up from large hotels, and follow the Guang Zhou - Shen Zhen Super-highway to Hong Kong, in under three hours journey time.