Guangzhou — the old Canton — is the sprawling capital of Guangdong province and the third-largest city in China after Beijing and Shanghai. It sits on the Pearl River delta close to Hong Kong and Macau, and for most of the last two thousand years it has been China's most important southern gateway to the outside world. The semi-annual Canton Fair is still one of the largest trade fairs on earth. Most Western travellers arrive through Hong Kong by high-speed rail (just under an hour) and are often pleasantly surprised: Guangzhou is less polluted and much more livable than its reputation as an industrial megacity suggests, with excellent food, elegant riverside promenades, and a slower pace than either Beijing or Shanghai.
The Yuexiu Park in the centre of the old city holds the Five Rams Statue (Guangzhou's civic symbol, for its Yangcheng nickname — "City of the Goats") and the 14th-century Zhenhai Tower. Nearby, the Six Banyan Temple and the Guangxiao Temple are two of the most important Buddhist temples in southern China. The Nanyue King Mausoleum Museum — the 2,000-year-old royal tomb of the Nanyue Kingdom, discovered in 1983 during construction work — is one of the finest archaeological museums in China and an essential half-day stop.
Modern Guangzhou rises across the Pearl River in Tianhe, where the 600-metre Canton Tower dominates the skyline opposite the glittering towers of Zhujiang New Town — the city's financial district. The Guangdong Museum and the Guangzhou Opera House (designed by Zaha Hadid) cluster here. In the opposite direction, Shamian Island in the old town preserves the 19th-century European concession — an enclave of leafy streets, colonnaded banks, and a French Catholic church, deliberately walled off from the chaotic old Chinese city by the British and French after the Opium Wars.
Cantonese food is, by wide agreement, the best in China — dim sum, roast meats (char siu, siu yuk, roast goose), fresh seafood simply steamed with ginger and soy, and soups simmered for hours. Start with yum cha (morning dim sum at Tao Tao Ju or Panxi Restaurant), stop for lunch at a roast-meat counter, and end at a seafood restaurant by the river. The Qingping Market — once the largest traditional-medicine market in Asia — is still a remarkable place to wander, even if the more exotic animals are (thankfully) no longer on sale.
Subtropical climate: muggy, hot summers (June–August) and mild winters (December–February). Spring is the best time for the Canton Fair and pleasant walking weather.