For the last month or two, I’ve spent most of my time at Kude Labs in Guangzhou. I’ve been to the city many times for conferences or business trips, but this is my first time really living in the city. On Wednesday I finally got a chance to get out of the office and take a walk through the city. I started at Yuexiu Park and worked my way down to Shangxiajiu.
Yuexiu park is the largest urban park in China. The place is truly huge and I got rather lost trying to find the famous five ram statue. Along the way I came across a number of people lounging in hammocks in the tress, playing chess, or doing Taichi. My camera also brought a bit of attention and I ended up taking photos for people. Hopefully they’ll find the results on Flickr.
Across the street I stopped in at the Nanyue Royal Tomb Museum. Nanyue was an ancient kingdom in Southern China during the Western Han Dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE). The tomb is of the second king of Nanyue who ruled here in ancient Guangzhou. It wasn’t discovered until the late ’80s and, despite significant water damage, was completely intact. I really like these sort of sites and it was cool that the public is allowed to directly enter the 2,000 year old tomb.
From there I turned south, past the Sun Yat-Sun Memorial, the Liuruong Temple and the Wu Xian Guan Temple. I wandered through the backstreets until I found Shangxiajiu. Shangxiajiu is a pedestrian street market featuring street snacks, clothing stores and some crazy neon. It’s a great place to end the day and it’s where I ended mine.
There are still a few other areas of Guangzhou I’d like to see, but I feel as though I’ve finally gotten a reasonable feel for the city. It has more character than I initially believed. Yes, Guangzhou can be dirty. And it doesn’t have the impressive monuments of Beijing or the fast and fashionable life of Shanghai. But Guangzhou is China in a very raw sense. It sits in the center of China’s economic engine. And it’s worth a visit if you get the chance. And if you’re in Hong Kong, you really have no excuse.
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