Guangzhou

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3-9-16 Flying to Guangzhou to join our Five Stans Trip, our small group tour was organised through Travel Directors in Perth, Australia. Flying time was only 9 1/2 hours, a four movie flight for Alex and a couple beers and snooze for Ron. Guangzhou, is the third largest city behind Beijing and Shanghai and was formerly known as Canton, located on the Pearl river and about 120km north-northwest of Hong Kong. We arrived on Saturday evening and after an hour getting through custom we were happy to check into the Pullman Hotel located at the airport in time for a cold beer and supper before turning in.

4-9-16 Since the rest of the tour group wasn't arriving until evening we set off in the morning to explore the city. Ron liked the challenge of navigating the metro and we were very surprised to find out an all day pass was only around $5 per person. After two train journeys we made it to Canton Tower, at 595 metres tall and me (Alex) not liking heights I wondered why I had agreed to not only go to the observation deck but to also ride the bubble tram, glass bubbles hanging off the side of the tower at 110 floors up, the only reason I agreed to go was because it was fathers day!

Our next challenge was to get to Shaiman Island. Bordering the Pearl River it was once home to foreign merchants and we had been told it had many beautiful colonial buildings. Shamian Island was an important port for Guangzhou's foreign trade from the 18th to the mid 19th century and Shamian also became a strategic point for city defence during the period of the Opium Wars. In 1859, the territory was divided in two concessions given to France and the United Kingdom. It was connected to the mainland by two bridges, which were closed at 10pm as a security measure.

We had looked up somewhere for lunch on trip-advisor and found one of the top restaurants in Guangzhou was the Orient Express French restaurant on Shamian, even though we thought we should have been trying Chinese food the reviews of this restaurant tempted us to book before we left Australia. We lingered over a long delicious lunch and fine french wines before walking through the boulevards filled with lovely trees and bronze sculptures. Our last stop was a visit to the White Swan Hotel where we took refuge from the tropical rain, it was a very beautiful hotel and we agreed we would stay here if in Guangzhou again, especially after the friendly doorman secured us a taxi quickly as he said he liked Ron's blue eyes.

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