First Impressions: GUANGZHOU

Nov 5

Nov 5 First Impressions: GUANGZHOU

What an incredible modern city! I spent the past weekend in Guangzhou with my dad and WOW - the city completely blew me away. I wasn’t expecting much; although I have never been before, I have read about it all the time in the news and heard about its development throughout the years from my cousins and friends. But the way the city is planned out, the districts, the food, the culture, is just absolutely incredible!

Without further ado, here are a list of my first impressions of this key city in the Greater Bay Area:

Great urban planning with well developed districts. The city seemed so well organized and planned out. Truly impressive.
Very interesting architecture both modern and traditional throughout the city. Ranging from class-A office towers to the Zaha Hadid Opera House to the Guangzhou Tower to the traditional Chen Clan Ancestral Hall featuring Lingnan architecture. it’s definitely a city for architecture lovers!
Night scenery with LED lights in the Baoli Plaza and Guangzhou Tower area near the Pearl River is breathtakingly beautiful. It even made this NYC transplant feel like a country bumpkin in a way.
WeChat Pay is King. And it’s so convenient! Well, only if you have WeChat pay that is. Like all reports have been saying recently, WeChat Pay is so prevalent everywhere in mainland. I was especially impressed with the subway ticket machines. It was so user friendly. All you have to do is click your final destination, number of tickets, and if you choose Wechat Pay as the payment mechanism, a QR code will appear on the ticket machine. Then, you scan it with your WeChat app on the phone - and viola. Paid. Truly incredible.
Guangzhou South Station, the high speed train station in Guangzhou, is the biggest train station I have seen. The hall is so large that it made me feel I was in an airport.
Dim Sum is the tradition. The dim sum in Guangzhou is more light and delicate compared to those in Hong Kong. The usual classic bun type dishes had less dough and more filling in comparison. The portions were big but each piece of dimsum was small and delicately made.
Epicenter of Cantonese Cuisine. No offense, but I find the Cantonese cuisine in Guangzhou much more suitable for my palate. It’s less greasy, dough heavy, compared to that of Hong Kong. Dare I say, I actually enjoy the Cantonese food in Guangzhou?
Great mix of traditional Chinese, with colonial European culture, as well as modern Chinese culture.