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Guangdong
Guǎngdōng’s unique culture and natural beauty fly under the radar and have yet to be discovered by many travelers, so you may have a plethora of sublime sights (not to mention great dim sum) all to yourself.
Northern Guǎngdōng (广东) is home to some wild and wondrous landscapes. In the blue pine forests of Nánlǐng, the music of waterfalls and windswept trees boomerangs in your direction. If it’s Unesco-crowned heritage you’re after, Kāipíng’s flamboyant watchtowers and the stylised poses of Cantonese opera will leave you riveted. What's all the fuss about Hakka and Chiuchow cultures? Well, find out in Méizhōu and Cháozhōu.
Historically Guǎngdōng was the starting point of the Maritime Silk Road and the birthplace of revolution. On the scenic byways of the Pearl River delta, you’ll uncover the glory of China’s revolutionary past. While on the surf-beaten beaches of Hǎilíng Island, an ancient shipwreck and its treasures await.
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Top attractions
These are our favorite local haunts, touristy spots, and hidden gems throughout Guangdong.
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OCT-LOFT
By far the best place for strolling or simply hanging out in the city is the breezy OCT-LOFT complex, a warren of repurposed communist-era factories criss-crossed by cobbled laneways. It's also a great place to browse a multitude of contemporary art spaces in between pit stops at the area's excellent cafes, design shops, music venues, bars, restaurants and Shenzhen's best bookshop. OCT-LOFT (OCT stands for Overseas Chinese Town) started out, appropriately for Shenzhen, as a TV manufacturing base before it was converted into a creative industries hub. Staying here is recommended, if you can snag a room at the hip Shenzhen Loft Youth Hostel, formerly a factory workers' dormitory complex. Note that OCT-LOFT isn't actually served by OCT metro station.
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Shamian Island
Don't depart Guangzhou without an amble through the concession-era gem that is Shamian Island. The central east–west drag is a time-warp boulevard of faded European-style buildings shaded by columns of banyan trees. It's a charming setting and the backdrop to many a wedding photo shoot. Choose a quiet time of day, and duck into side streets where you can peek into lived-in residences with wooden staircases and cracked Victorian floor tiles. The island (it's not really; the narrow channel to the north was dug by the British to detach it from the city) was acquired as a foreign concession in 1859 after the second Opium War. At its peak, Shamian was home to consulates, banks and trading firms from all over the globe. Today several of these heritage buildings house hotels, cafes and eateries.
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Chen Clan Ancestral Hall
An all-in-one ancestral shrine, Confucian school and ‘chamber of commerce’ for the Chen clan, this compound was built in 1894 by the residents of 72 villages in Guangdong, where the Chen lineage is predominant. There are 19 buildings in the traditional Lingnan style, all featuring exquisite carvings, statues and paintings, and decorated with ornate scrollwork throughout.
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Dafen Oil Painting Village
This folksy urban village of narrow lanes and alleys is a pleasure to visit in itself, but what makes Dafen simply unmissable is the hundreds of art studios and shops churning out reproduction oil paintings by hand, from Van Gogh's sunflowers (yours for less than ¥100) to enormous, gilt-framed scenes of mounted cavalry or galleons at sea rendered in lavish detail, costing upwards of ¥2000. Or why not go pop art with a Mona Lisa–meets-Minions mash-up? All this has earned Dafen the nickname of 'the world's art factory' – at one time churning out 60% of the world's olil paintings – a reputation the authorities have sought to upgrade with the staging of the first Dafen International Oil Painting Biennale in 2018, improved road access and renewed focus on the (rather overblown) Dafen Art Museum built in 2007. But for now, the place remains quirky and full of character. For a wacky souvenir, you can order a bespoke painting (you astride a unicorn, perhaps?) for a negotiable fee, and return to collect it a few days later. Dafen is also a good place to buy Chinese brushes and ink stones, which make excellent buys for the artistically inclined. To get to the village, exit the metro and take a left after Walmart.
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Lianhua Shan Park
It's an easy half-hour amble up to the top of this tropical hill in the heart of Futian District for Shenzhen's best skyline photographs. Appropriately, you'll be sharing the mind-blowing vistas with Deng Xiaoping (in statue form), whose economic reforms in the 1980s made this whole crazy mess of prosperity possible. Anecdotally, the man who cast the statue of Deng was the father of Teng Fei, proprietor of Old Heaven Books and B10 Live House, and curator of the OCT-LOFT Jazz Festival. Lianhua Shan Park is also a popular kite-flying spot.
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Zumiao
The 11th-century Zumiao temple is believed to be the site where Cantonese opera flourished. The art is still performed today during festivals to entertain the gods…and the tourists. Sharing the complex are a Confucius temple (c 1911) and memorial halls dedicated to two martial artists born in Foshan – Wong Fei Hung (aka Huang Fei Hong) and Ip Man – and kung fu cinema in general. There are daily performances (10am, 2.15pm and 3.30pm) of kung fu and lion dance. Cantonese opera performances are held at 1.30pm on the 1st and 15th of every month. The temple runs martial-arts classes for children every summer. Call 0757 8222 1680 for details.
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Qingping Chinese Medicine Market
Just north of the channel that divides Shamian Island from the city, this tumbledown market is a sensory delight, with open-fronted vendors arranged beneath an arcade and in the tiny alleys behind. You'll find ginseng, goji berries, Sichuan peppercorns, giant mushrooms and countless other restorative tonic essentials. The dried and live creepy crawlies from the land and sea, plus other animal parts, are not for the squeamish.
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Sunrise Art Center
Built from the vestiges of a century-old Hakka home, this idyllic courtyard gallery was created by Chen Qiuzhi, a contemporary ink artist from Anhui province. Several galleries display his work, and the wonderful cafe is just the spot to kick back with a tea or coffee after browsing the surrounding Dafen Oil Painting Village.
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Guangzhou Opera House
Designed by Zaha Hadid, southern China's premier performance venue has transformed the area with its typically commanding, otherworldly aspect. Futuristic glass panels have been woven together to form subtle curves, creating a visual effect that has been described as pebbles on the bed of the Pearl River. As well as opera, dance and classical music, touring international productions, such as War Horse, are staged here. You're free to stroll around the architecturally interesting exterior, which is lit up at night. Weekend visiting slots are at 10am, 11am and on the hour between 1pm and 4pm. Taking the form of a 45-minute tour (Chinese only), you'll get to see the grand opera hall with its ethereal LED lights as well as the state-of-the-art rehearsal studios.