# Guangzhou|广州|Гуанчжоу|Guangdžou|Kanton



## Pansori (Apr 26, 2006)

*Baiyun Mountain*

As can be seen from the photos visibility was getting worse by the minute. I really wish I could have seen the city from that area during the sunset with better weather





Layers of urbanization


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## Pansori (Apr 26, 2006)

*Baiyun Mountain*


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## Pansori (Apr 26, 2006)

*Baiyun Mountain*







After an exhausting (but very interesting) walk at Baiyun Mountain it was time to have lunch at the nearby McD. Only that instead of my usual burger I got McD fried rice with chicken. Although at ¥20 (more if you buy meal) it's at least twice more expensive than the same thing at some random noodle house or Chinese fast food. It seems that McDonald's, just like KFC and other Western Fast foods, is seen as being a little bit 'premium' for which it can charge more. It has to be said, however, that the variety and choice of food in Guangzhou (perhaps just like in any other China's major city) is plentiful for any price and any taste


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

20 yuan for a rice dish in a sit-down sounds about right. Were you comparing against the food stalls and the sidestreet eateries that charge 5 yuan for a fried rice?


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## Pansori (Apr 26, 2006)

^^
I guess so. Obviously I didn't mean luxury restaurants.


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## Pansori (Apr 26, 2006)

*Liwan District*

My next urban journey in Guangzhou is a walk in *Liwan* district along Inner Ring elevated road from *Zhongshanba* metro station area (where I was living during my stay in Guangzhou) to *Shamian Island* and slightly beyond along the riverside.

Ground floor of the apartment building where I was staying (not far from Zhongshanba metro station). I guess it's what used to pass for a 'luxury apartment' development at the times it was built. I don't know when it was built but it was there as early as 2004 (can be seen on Google Earth). I suppose it's probably from between 2000-2004. It's located here on SOSO maps street view. A family operate a hostel there which is established on the 15th floor apartment. The reason why I chose it was because of excellent views (there aren't any other highrises nearby which would block the view) and simply out of curiosity to find out how life is in 'real' apartment buildings in Guangzhou. I really loved it despite the fact that the fountains on the ground floor don't work and lights in the lobby area are very dim even during the night. However there is a security post at the compound gate and the area feels very safe in General. A very convenient noodle house and a tiny corner supermarket selling beer and snacks is right next to the entrance where I used to buy my Pearl River beer (defintiely my favorite of all the beer I tried there... maybe 5 or 6) and ice green tea


Walking along *Huangsha Avenue* and *Inner Ring* right above it


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## Pansori (Apr 26, 2006)

*Liwan District*

Shops. There is a variety of trade activity from cheap fast foods to scooter repair shops to small supermarkets


Riverside along *Yanjiang West Road*


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## Pansori (Apr 26, 2006)

*Liwan District*

*Somalia Bar* on Yanjiang West Road. I was wondering what kind of establishment is that? From what I understand it's a nightclub. Is it a place where the Somalian community is gathering? I did see quite a few Somalians in Guangzhou (might be Eritrean or Ethiopian Muslims though, can't know for sure). I was a little surprised to see so many foreigners all over the place. I spoke to a number of Russians, Egyptians, Austrians, South Africans. Some were on business while some just on a sightseeing tour




Bridge to *Shamian Island*


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## Pansori (Apr 26, 2006)

*Liwan District*

Illuminated fountains in *Shamian Island*


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## VECTROTALENZIS (Jul 10, 2010)

How did you change the title of the thread?


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## Pansori (Apr 26, 2006)

^^
I didn't :?


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## Pansori (Apr 26, 2006)

*Zhujiang New Town CBD*

The next destination is *Zhujiang New Town* aka *Guangzhou CBD*. Starting at *Wuyangcun* metro station and walking towards the core of the CBD

Views from the elevated pedestrian crossing at the intersection of *Guangzhou Middle Avenue* and *Huacheng Avenue*


View to a different direction


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## Pansori (Apr 26, 2006)

*Zhujiang New Town CBD*

As some might have suspected Guangzhou has quite an epic road infrastructure. That includes well planned street grid, elevated roads and expressways, tunnels, multi-level junctions and other powerful infrastructure all over the place


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## Pansori (Apr 26, 2006)

*Zhujiang New Town*

Urban environment along Guangzhou Middle Avenue. Mostly hi-end luxury apartments with an occasional office building inbetween


I could only guess how much a regular apartment would cost in this development. Probably a fortune or two


289m tall *Park Hyatt Guangzhou*


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## Joseph Gomes (Jul 31, 2013)

Guangzhou is a gorgeous and beautiful city, and it's CBD is perhaps the most beautiful and aesthetically pleasing CBD in the world. But overall, I find that Guangzhou doesn't have the wow factor like its neighbour Shenzhen. Almost all the photos of Shenzhen are intriguing, and despite having similar population Shenzhen definitely looks less clustered and congested than Guangzhou


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## christos-greece (Feb 19, 2008)

Great, very nice photos from Guangzhou


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## El_Greco (Apr 1, 2005)

Excellent thread, man. Love those river shots, looks like mini Shanghai, I guess because of the colonial architecture.


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## Nightsky (Sep 16, 2002)

Amazing city and good job with the photos! Can't wait to go there in the end of this year, together with Hong Kong, Macau and Shenzhen. :lol:
Hope for blue skies, but I've heard that's not common in this part of the world.


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## Pansori (Apr 26, 2006)

Joseph Gomes said:


> Guangzhou is a gorgeous and beautiful city, and it's CBD is perhaps the most beautiful and aesthetically pleasing CBD in the world. But overall, I find that Guangzhou doesn't have the wow factor like its neighbour Shenzhen. Almost all the photos of Shenzhen are intriguing, and despite having similar population Shenzhen definitely looks less clustered and congested than Guangzhou


Surely so. It is aesthetically rather different. Perhaps more similar to Shanghai than Shenzhen.However Shenzhen is rather unique in this sense not only in China but the world as a whole. The city is all new, built from scratch which means complete freedom for planning initiatives and experiments. In Guangzhou in order to build something you need to demolish something else first.

Zhujiang New Town CBD, however, is perhaps the best CBD in China.


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## Pansori (Apr 26, 2006)

Nightsky said:


> Amazing city and good job with the photos! Can't wait to go there in the end of this year, together with Hong Kong, Macau and Shenzhen. :lol:
> Hope for blue skies, but I've heard that's not common in this part of the world.


Thanks!
I don't think blue sky is a problem. Especially in Winter. I'm sure you'll get a chance to see it at least occasionally. The problem with my stay in Guangzhou was that almost every day it was raining for extended periods of time. On some days it was raining all day non stop.



El_Greco said:


> Excellent thread, man. Love those river shots, looks like mini Shanghai, I guess because of the colonial architecture.


Good to hear you like it. 
Guangzhou does have some similarities to Shanghai: diverse neighborhoods, elevated roads, European architecture and perhaps many other things. However I found Guangzhou to be more cosmopolitan and open. And, of course, it has a better CBD where they did a really good job with the street level solutions. I think Joseph Gomes has a point there saying that it has the best looking CBD. I will post the photos soon.


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## Distinguished (Dec 4, 2010)

http://www.upo.gov.cn/pages/zt/ghl/gh10years/zlgh/hjbd/images/20109241545131.jpg
http://www.upo.gov.cn/pages/zt/ghl/gh10years/zlgh/hjbd/images/20109241545132.jpg


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## williamhou2005 (Oct 21, 2006)

Distinguished said:


> i don't think so this is Shenzhen http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1659218&page=2
> downtown of SHENZHEN has been being SO PROVINCIAL IN MY EYES



Those are not the best shoots I have seen to represent Shenzhen, and I am being very kind here. Myself or people I know in Shenzhen do not even visit the area described in that post, that is the oldest and among the most messy parts of Shenzhen, next to the Hong Kong border.


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## Pansori (Apr 26, 2006)

*Zhujiang New Town CBD*

Continuing the photo report from *Zhujiang New Town*.

This is by no means a good sight. All of a sudden very dark clouds started accumulating and it seemed like a heavy rainstorm was coming which is exactly what happened some seconds later




The good thing was that it was fairly easy to find a refuge from rain under some trees or other objects


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## Pansori (Apr 26, 2006)

*Zhujiang New Town CBD*

Despite intense rain there still was alot of people around. Of course all of them, unlike me, had umbrellas


*Guangzhou IFC* seen from the main entrance of Guangzhou Library


*Guangzhou Library*. What a design!


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## Pansori (Apr 26, 2006)

*Zhujiang New Town CBD*

The rain seemed to have stopped for a moment. Although it restarted some moments later. Weather was changing in a matter of minutes


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## Pansori (Apr 26, 2006)

*Zhujiang New Town CBD*

Fountains on the pedestrian walk which play according to the music


600m tall here


Canton Tower. I said it before and I'll say it again - I find it to be the most beautiful and fascinating contempoirary structure ever built


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## Pansori (Apr 26, 2006)

*Zhujiang New Town CBD*



*Pearl River Tower* (310m) and *The Pinnacle* (360m)


*Leatop Plaza* (303m), *Bank of Guangzhou* (268m) and U/C *Fortune Center* (309m)


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## Pansori (Apr 26, 2006)

*Zhujiang New Town*





This was it from that evening's walk in the CBD. The rain was starting to seriously annoy me and I just went to the metro and went back to my hotel.


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## Distinguished (Dec 4, 2010)

Pansori said:


> If anyone's checked out my thread on Shenzhen this one shall be the chronological continuation of it.
> 
> For those who are only interested in Guangzhou, welcome to one of China's biggest, most vibrant and most amazing cities.
> 
> ...


IN FACT GUAGNZHOU HAS HIGHER TASTE ABOUT MODERN AND GLITZY ASPECT THAN SHENZHEN REPRESENTING IN IDEA OF STRUCTURES AND COMMERCIAL FACILITIES. BTW THE FASTEST COMPUTER WORLDWIDE LOCATED IN GUAGNZHOU. NOT ONLY SUPPERTALLS BUT ALSO VILLAS ARE THE BEST AND THE MOST EXPENSIVE IN CHINA RANKING NO.1 SEVERAL RECENT YEARS IN WHERE NEARBY BAIYUN MOUNTAIN NAMED DAYI MOUNTAIN VILLA WHICH ARE UNIQUE DESIGNED BY FAMOUS ARCHITECTS


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## bozenBDJ (Jul 18, 2012)

*Distinguished *'s 'invasion' of this thread :bash::bash:

And by the way *Pansori *, your CAN trips' photos are nice just like the city  .


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## Pansori (Apr 26, 2006)

*Zhujiang New Town CBD*

After a somewhat unsuccessful attempt to spend the late night in the CBD due to heavy rains I decided to come back the following day. As I did. And here are the photos.

Leatop Plaza. A 303 meter tall skyscraper designed by *Helmut Jahn* who also designed the likes of Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, Sony Center in Berlin, Messeturm in Frankfurt and many other prominent projects




*Leatop Plaza* and *Bank of Guangzhou* which was designed by Guangzhou Design Institute


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## Pansori (Apr 26, 2006)

*Zhujiang New Town CBD*

Art installation next to *Bank of Guangzhou* tower




View next to *Liede Bridge*. Lots of construction activity all over the place. Mostly new luxury apartments getting built. I suppose this is one of the most prime locations to live in Guangzhou


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## Pansori (Apr 26, 2006)

*Views from Liede Bridge*



Something that looks like a micro CBD U/C in Pazhoucun area (about 5km away)


New luxury apartments


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## Pansori (Apr 26, 2006)

*View from Liege Bridge*

Kolors? No shit? 


U/C stuff. No idea what it is


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## HKG (Aug 2, 2006)

*SUPER ！！！

风云变幻！！！*


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## Pansori (Apr 26, 2006)

View on *Liede Bridge*. The bridge itself was opened in 2009


Traffic on the bridge


Two topless men walk by the riverfront walk along Yuejiang West Road. I have noticed it is fairly common to see topless men even in big cities in China in warm weather


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## Pansori (Apr 26, 2006)

Top part of *Guangzhou IFC*


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## Pansori (Apr 26, 2006)

Guangzhou Library and nearby skyscrapers 






CBD skyscrapers on the other bank of Zhujiang River


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## Delta1088 (Dec 26, 2012)

pansori can i share your photos on a chinese photo forum? It is simply AMAZING


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## Pansori (Apr 26, 2006)

Delta1088 said:


> pansori can i share your photos on a chinese photo forum? It is simple AMAZING


Thanks Delta. Sure you can share them. :cheers:


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## bleetz (Feb 13, 2009)

Amazing city and fantastic shots. China has really come a long way. Few places can compare to this.


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## Pansori (Apr 26, 2006)

For those who can't waste time on checking all the photos here is a slideshow which has most of the photos but only takes 6 minutes


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## Bruno BHZ (Nov 15, 2002)

Great photos! I am impressed with the quality of contemporary architecture in the city.


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## zhossan (Jan 29, 2012)

on the rooftop of tallest skyscraper in Guangzhou, China 
(International Finance Center, 11-th highest building in the world - 438m / 103 fl ). 
29 April, 2013. Alex Zhossan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cb4e_eLiytA&feature=youtube_gdata


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