Guangzhou travel guide

Top 10 sights in Guangzhou

Ranked by Wikipedia language editions — proven fame.

1. 

   1© jiang-wen-jie · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Canton Tower

   A 604-metre observation tower of 2010 in Haizhu, whose twisted hyperboloid lattice narrows to a waist — locals call it the slim waist. A ring of open bubble cars runs around the roof at 450 metres, and it faces the Zhujiang New Town skyline across the river.

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   CITIC Plaza

   An 80-storey office tower of 391 metres in Tianhe, finished in 1997 and then the tallest concrete building in the world. Its twin antenna spires were the city's marker until the Canton Tower and the CTF Finance Centre passed it.

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   Huaisheng Mosque

   The main mosque of Guangzhou, in Yuexiu district, whose foundation is traditionally dated to 627 — which would make it among the oldest in China. Rebuilt several times, its minaret once served as a lighthouse for ships coming up the Pearl River on the maritime silk road.

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   Thirteen Factories

   The waterfront quarter where, from 1757 to 1842, all legal Western trade with China was confined to thirteen licensed merchant houses and foreigners were barred from the walled city. Tea, silk and later opium moved through it; fire destroyed the last of it in 1856 and Culture Park covers the site.

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5. 

   5© Shujianyang · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Sacred Heart Cathedral

   A Gothic Revival cathedral built between 1863 and 1888 entirely of granite, the only all-stone Gothic church in China, and known locally as the Stone House. Its twin spires reach 58 metres, and the French architect used Chinese masons who had never cut a pointed arch.

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6. 

   6© Legolas1024 · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Temple of the Six Banyan Trees

   A temple founded in 537 whose nine-storey Flower Pagoda of 1097 holds a Southern Dynasties relic. The name comes from Su Dongpo, who visited in 1100, admired six banyan trees in the courtyard and wrote the two characters that still hang over the gate.

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7. 

   7© David Chen User:Iamdavidtheking 12:44, 11 April 2008 (UTC) · CC BY 3.0

   Guangxiao Temple

   The oldest temple in Guangzhou, on the site of a prince's residence of the second century BC, and where Huineng, the sixth patriarch of Chan Buddhism, is said to have had his head shaved under a bodhi tree. A local saying holds that the temple existed before the city did.

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8. 

   8© Shujianyang · CC BY 4.0

   Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall (Guangdong)

   An octagonal hall of 1931 to Sun Yat-sen, seating 3,238 people under a span of seventy-one metres with no interior columns — a steel truss dressed in blue-tiled Chinese roofs. It stands below Yuexiu Park, where Sun had his presidential office.

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9. 

   9© User:Popolon · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Baiyun Mountain

   A 382-metre hill a few kilometres north of the centre, called White Cloud for the mist that settles on it after rain, and the city's traditional high point. A cable car climbs it, the summit at Moxing Ridge looks over the whole city, and it fills with residents walking at dawn.

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10. 

    10© Shujianyang · CC BY-SA 4.0

    Site of King's Tomb, Nanyue King Museum

    The tomb of Zhao Mo, second king of Nanyue, cut into a hill in 122 BC and found intact in 1983 during construction. He was buried in a suit of 2,291 jade plaques sewn with silk, with his seals, bronzes and fifteen attendants; the museum is built over the excavation.

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1. 

   1© Shujianyang · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Chen Clan Academy

   An ancestral hall of 1894 built by seventy-two Chen clans as a hostel and study house for kinsmen sitting the imperial examinations. Nineteen halls hold the fullest display of Cantonese decorative craft anywhere — wood, brick and stone carving, ceramic roof friezes, iron casting.

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2. 

   2© JaJaWa · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Chimelong Paradise

   Amusement park near Guangzhou, opened in 2006. It runs ten roller coasters, among them a ten-inversion ride that shares a world record.

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   Dafo Temple

   Buddhist temple in Guangzhou, founded in the tenth century by the Southern Han and rebuilt in 1663. Its main hall holds three gilded Buddhas cast in bronze.

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   4© chensiyuan · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Zhujiang New Town

   The central business district laid out in Tianhe from the 1990s, with Zaha Hadid's opera house, the provincial museum and the library along one axis. The riverside walk faces the Canton Tower and is where the city gathers after dark.

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   5© Zhangzhugang · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Foshan Ancestral Temple

   Temple at Foshan near Guangzhou, founded in 1078 and dedicated to the god of the north. It is known for its Shiwan ceramic roof figures and the martial arts hall of Wong Fei-hung.

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   Guangdong Museum

   The provincial museum, in a building of 2010 designed as a carved lacquer box with no interior columns on the display floors. Chaozhou woodcarving, Duan inkstones and Guangdong natural history are its strengths, and admission is free with online booking.

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   7© Huangdan2060 · CC BY 3.0

   Xianxian Mosque

   The largest mosque in Guangzhou, in Yuexiu district, built beside the tomb traditionally held to be that of Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas, a companion of the Prophet said to have reached Canton in the seventh century. The claim is disputed; the burial ground is old regardless.

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8. 

   8© JaJaWa · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Guangzhou Chimelong Tourist Resort

   A resort in Panyu run by the Chimelong group, holding a theme park, a circus arena, a safari park, an ocean kingdom, a water park and three hotels. Its safari park keeps the only surviving giant panda triplets, born in 2014.

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9. 

   9© Original uploader was Df112001 at zh.wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Yuexiu Hill

   A hill in Yuexiu district that formed the northern edge of the walled city, now a park with the surviving Ming city wall, the five-storey Zhenhai Tower of 1380 and the Five Rams sculpture. The rams are the city's founding legend and its emblem.

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10. 

    10© Jasonjiang.1998 · CC BY-SA 4.0

    Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Center

    A university district on Xiaoguwei Island in Panyu, opened in 2004 on 17.9 square kilometres with 3.53 million square metres of floor space for 350,000 to 400,000 students. Ten universities moved campuses here, connected to the city by two metro stations.

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