Highlights to see during daytime

Today was an outdoor day, we had several places on our list.

Shamian Island

The island has a long history. Without going too deep into it, it used to be a strategic port for foreign trade since the year 960 (Song Dynasty). Later in 1859, it was given to the UK and France as an foreign enclave. After 1949 the area was given back to China.

In any case, today, the architecture is still beautiful, although it feels a little out of place in China.

There are a some cafes and restaurants there and you can walk through the entire area in 1 hour easily.

Shangxiajiu Pedestrian Area

Next, we walked to the “major shopping street” from Shamian island. On the way, we came across a lot of strange shops, that sold dried mushrooms and many things we could not identify. I will share some pictures, perhaps you can identify what it is? Feel free to leave a comment. If I figure it out later, I will let you know.

Along the way we found a dumping area for rental bikes, or perhaps it was just a creative way to park them?

The actual shopping street was a different experience altogether, there were all kind of shops. However, it was very noisy and every shop really tried hard to attract customers. I don’t like shopping to much in general, so I could convince my wife just to pass through…

Lunch

It was already 14:30 when we left the area and we were already hungry. So we went to the next best mall and looked for a place to have a pizza. We found “The Pizza Factory” a nice place where you can get a “DIY Pizza” where you can choose the ingredients by yourself.

Address and link to Dianping:

披萨工坊The Pizza Factory(北京路店)
比萨,中山五路70号捷登都会五层L5011更多商户信息评价请查看

Yuexiu Park (5 Goat Park)

A little further north, there is the famous Yuexiu Park, which is also the biggest park in Guangzhou and a 4A rated scenic area.

Address and Dianping link:

广州市越秀公园
公园,解放北路988号更多商户信息评价请查看

The legend of the 5 goats goes more or less like this. In ancient times, there was a drought, lasting for several years. Suddenly, 5 heavenly beings appeared from the clouds, riding on 5 differently colored goats.. The heavenly beings left the goats and some wheat for the people and from then on there was always rain and good weather for enough crop harvest. To honor those goats, the statues were build.

The park is one of the nicest parks we have ever been to. There is a big outdoor swimming pool in the middle (I suppose for professional swimmers and contests as it looked like). You can take a boat ride on one of the many lakes, or just hike/walk around the area. The plants are tropical, from palms to bamboo forests to different flowers.

ShiShi Shenxin Cathedral

Unfortunately, we were too late to enter the cathedral, but it was a magnificent view from the outside nevertheless. It reminded me on the Notre-dame cathedral (I am not a cathedral expert, though).

The cathedral was build from 1863 to 1888 (22 years!) You should absolutely not miss to visit it when you are in Guangzhou.