The Future is Now in Guangzhou

Have you heard of Guangdong (also called Canton)? It is one of most developed provinces of mainland China with GDP similar to Mexico. I bet you read these lines on a device fully or partially manufactured in Guandong.

Guangzhou, Guandong’s capital has a history of over 2200 years and was a major terminus of the maritime Silk Road and continues to serve as a major port and transportation hub today.

More than 14 million people live in Guangzhou. 6 other multi-million cities are situated in 100km radius around Guanhzhou. This region is called Pearl River Delta and being most populous region in the world.

Unlike Europeans, Chinese don’t have hard feelings for their historical heritage, so Guangzhou looks ultra-modern with hundreds of skyscrapers, wide roads and neon lights.

During dusk the city looks especially charmful and sinister. Like cities from sci-fi movies in 90s.

You leave the apartment of 70-story tower and crawl though crowds of poor people selling some electronic toys on the streets. Walk a few minutes and see lots of luxurious sport cars parked near a night club. As in most booming cities, there is a huge social diversity here.

After the sunset Guangzhou becomes even more atmospheric and vivid.

When people talk about real incarnations of cyberpunk they usually mention Tokyo and Hong Kong, Wikipedia mentions Sony Center in Berlin. But Guangzhou is a better example IMO. Just take a look on its park area at night — it looks cyberpunk as fuck!

High tech, low life, skyscrapers, shit loads of neon, computer networks, evil corporations in a police state — it’s all here!

The city is being built all day and night.

The image is a bit old, all of these buildings are finished now.

However the city is not just sinister, it is also humane and playful sometimes, just like the penguin who winks me.

City’s tallest building is Canton tower, which has open observation deck at the top.

The future is already here — it’s just not very evenly distributed. Visiting Guangzhou is like a trip to the future.

Guangzhou is definitely worth visiting. You can get here by plane from major Chinese cities like Beijing or Shanghai… Alternatively you could get here via high-speed railroad from Hong Kong or Shenzhen. But don’t do it in summer — the climate is uncomfortably hot and humid here.