Things To Do in Guangzhou

History buffs and culture vultures may well be disappointed in Guangzhou as this city moves to a very different beat, the vibrant pulse of international trade. The Guangdong Museum of Art, Yanyu Lu 38 (tel. 020/8735-1468; www.gdmoa.org; [yen]15; Tues-Sun 9am-5pm) is one of the best in the country and is definitely worth a visit, but apart from that the real highlights are the markets, the vast bazaars, and the huge numbers of people crammed into this small river delta. Those making a brief trip to Guangzhou from Hong Kong should concentrate on the commerce rather than the culture. The Provincial Museum, the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, the Peasant Movement Institute, and other revolutionary sites are all dull and avoidable. Ignore all those remarkably dull sights glorifying the revolutionary credentials of the city and seek out instead what the Cantonese currently have passions for: business and food.

Shamian Island

Forced to relinquish a permanent trading base to the hated barbarians (Westerners) at the end of the First Opium War in 1841, the Guangzhou authorities probably snickered as they palmed off a sandbar to the British and French. Perhaps they snickered less when it was promptly bunded (made secure with artificial embankments); was provided with proper streets, drainage, and imposing buildings; and became home to a prosperous foreign enclave with everything from tennis courts to a yacht club. The rest of Guangzhou lacked even properly surfaced roads well into the 20th century. Resentment from the local authorities manifested itself in dictatorial regulations, restricting traders solely to the island (barely half the size it is today and resulting in the word "cantonment") and forbidding wives or families. There was a death penalty for anybody attempting to learn Chinese, and the only time that the foreigners were allowed to leave the island was by rowboat to visit the notorious flower boats upriver, lucrative sidelines for the same Cantonese merchants who monopolized the vast opium networks that quickly brought China to its knees.

Shamian (metro: Huangsha on line no. 1) still retains some of its former grandeur in the mansions which served as foreign residences, business premises, banks, and consulates. The mansions were taken over by dozens of families after 1949, but they were recently restored, in many cases to their former splendor, with each major building labeled as to its former purpose. Now partly pedestrianized, its broader boulevards are like long thin gardens with a lot of topiary. A line of bars and cafes on the southwest side with views over the Pearl River serves modern expats. Dozens of small businesses close to the modern White Swan Hotel aim to entrap those on organized tours who wander out of the hotel by themselves and think they are being brave. Souvenir stalls, tailoring stores, and teahouses all have inflated prices, and all offer "special discounts" to those with children -- the U.S. consulate on the island is the one specializing in adoption matters, and adoptive parents fan out from here to collect their new daughters (almost always daughters) and return to do the paperwork. One or two of the old mansions are roofless and boarded up, but others are open as restaurants, shops, or hotels.