Guangzhou & Shenzhen.
A long weekend visiting friends who live in Guangzhou, followed by a quick stop off in Shenzhen.
- Skyscrapers.
It’s hard not to appreciate the sheer size of the skyscrapers in Guangzhou and Shenzhen (we’re talking 530 meters high). I found them particularly impressive because I visited both cities in 2010 and half the skyscrapers we saw didn’t exist then. These built up areas feel like another world to other parts of the city, and it came as no surprise reading that China have built more skyscrapers in 2018 than ever before.
In Guangzhou Tianhe Qu district is filled with high rises (IFC, the Pinnacle, CTF Finance center, Pearl River tower and many, many more) dominating the skyline. It’s well worth wondering through Huacheng Square at night to take in the bright lights, plus you get a top view of Canton tower.
In Shenzhen we wondered around Futian (near the Shopping park MTR station) admiring the high rises and a hell of a lot of construction work as there are clearly a lot more skyscrapers in the making!
2. Guangzhou bicycle tour.
A delightful way to see the city from old to new Guangzhou. Our guide, an expat university lecturer from New York working at Guangzhou University, was super knowledgeable and gave us a run down of the history of Guangzhou.
We made a few stops at a temple, a Wing Chun (Kung Fu) school, a wet (food) market, the People’s Park and opposite Shamian (an old European colonial island) to admire the view of Pearl River.
The People’s Park was fascinating with groups of people singing, dancing and playing Jianzi in different areas of the park. Jianzi is a weighted shuttlecock kicked between players and is played either competitively on a pitch or artistically like in the Park. In groups of four people kicked the Jianzi over their heads to the next person, it looked like they were dancing.
I can’t take credit for the cycle tour, we stayed with friends who are teachers in Guangzhou and they organised the whole weekend for us – it was absolute bliss.
3. Shenzhen OCT Loft Creative Culture Park.
OCT Loft is an area made up of renovated factory buildings which have been converted into galleries, shops and restaurants. We had a nice afternoon wondering between the shops and chilling in a cafe. It’s in between MTR stations Qiaocheng North and Qiaocheng East – next time we’ll stay in this area!
4. Shenzhen electronics market.
Even I could appreciate the size of the electronics market near Huaqiang Road, I’ve been told it’s the largest electronic market in the world. It’s more a cluster of buildings selling every electrical good or component you could ever dream of – cameras, microchip components, cables, laptops, LEDs, wires, surveillance equipment, karaoke machines, lighting, not to mention knock-off iPhones, Macs, Sony headphones…
(Clearly this one was more Tom’s input than mine!).
We visited Guangzhou & Shenzhen in December 2018.
