A Week in Guangzhou Part 3 - Culture and Sightseeing

I had big plans for our fourth day in Guangzhou. Finally, I was going to the Museum of the Mausoleum of the Nanyue King! I'm ordinarily really, really, not a big fan of museums; I speed-walk through the exhibitions, walking straight for the cafe at the end aiming for a civilised cup of espresso. I'm the expert on avoiding museums*. 

*For an exhibition to be boring, I've decided, the exhibition must be personally unappealing, AND the exhibition must be lengthy. A ten-minute mind-numbing display wouldn't be considered tedious, but a two-hour long display would. 

This exhibition, however, is quite different. It is an actual archaeological site displaying the tomb of the Nanyue King Zhao Mo. The tomb's location was once lost from history, and only serendipitously unearthed in 1983 by a construction team who were planning on building a block of apartments on that land. Museums may be a dime a dozen, but who would pass up the chance to visit an actual archaeological site?

A modern glass-and-steel exterior protects the tomb from the elements, and a flight of stairs lead into the antechamber. Each chamber serves a particular function, and while the rough stone walls may seem unsophisticated by today's standards, it was a marvel to be able to carve a tomb into the rocks itself back in 122BC. While wooden planks now line the floor for safety issues, the rest of the crypt remained unaltered. 

A preserved portion of the door showcased the mechanism by which the door, once closed from the outside, locks and prevents the stone doors from being re-opened. 

The treasures that the Nanyue King was buried were displayed in a separate building. It's a pretty hefty collection, including gemstones, weapons from his armories, and his royal seals. It's worth a look around. There were also concurrent exhibitions on other topics around, though my eyes glazed over at the sights of those. 

Throughout my trip, there were continual reminders of how technologically advanced China is, far surpassing Singapore and Australia. WeChat (their equivalent of Whatsapp), acts as an e-commerce business. Most business here involves WeChat as a payment option, spurring bank cards (and in one case, the cashier told me point-blank that they don't accept cash.) The Nanyue Museum uses WeChat to distribute their audioguide - museum-goers key in the exhibition number into WeChat and it loads the audio explanation for that display. It's a fantastic, low-cost way of operating a museum. 

Tickets are RMB12 each, half price for students, and complimentary for adults over 65 year old regardless of nationality. 

Museum of the Mausoleum of the Nanyue King （南越王墓博物馆）

867 Jiefang N Rd, Yuexiu Qu, Guangzhou Shi, Guangdong Sheng, China, 510000

广州市解放北路867号 

(Two different museums are dedicated to the Nanyue King: one is of the tomb (as above), and the other was the site of his palace. The one with his tomb is 100m from Yuexiu metro, and the other one - which we did not go - is closest to Peasant Movement Institute 农讲所 metro.)

We met up with our cousin-uncle for lunch, who recommended Jade Garden, a dim sum restaurant in the city. Their dim sum is expensive, but they pride themselves on providing a luxurious experience. Each siew mai is topped by a full scallop, and har gao is crafted into the likeliness of fishes and adorned with scales and eyes. A full abalone sits on other pastries, and the dim sum are served prettily in a decorative basket. We also enjoyed the Egg Tarts and slices of Carrot Cake. 

In all honesty, the service threw me for a loop. In other cuisines, it's second nature to have servers to fill my glass for me, or to wave them down for anything I need, but it's really foreign for me in dim sum settings to wait for a server to top up my tea. The pot of tea is literally right in front of me, and I really want to drink now. The presentation here is indeed magnificent, and that in itself is worth a visit. Quality-wise though, the dim sum at 唐人轩 (tang ren xuan) is finer. 

Miss XS remembered their spectacular dessert from her last visit: a towering mille-feuille piled with layers of fruits and wisps of cotton candy. It was decidedly not-Cantonese, but who cares? Every forkful was filled with shatteringly crisp French pastry. 

Jade Garden

Taikoo Hui Shopping Mall, basement, Tianhe District

I've heard that Beijing Lu (near Peasant Institute Movement metro) is the old-town centre of Guangzhou, and the Tianhe district is the new city centre. It's clear from the buildings in the area; the former has old shophouses, while skyscrapers adorn the landscape of Tianhe. Luxurious brands are everywhere, and any lingering doubts I had about Guangzhou's economical outlook dissipated. I'd never seen such a rapidly-modernising economy, with such massive changes in just six years. No matter which part of the area we look, from Guangzhou's old townhouses selling Chinese herbs to the new financial district selling luxury dim sum , everybody is doing such brisk businesses, and the entire city radiates with optimism and vitality. 

We spent the rest of the day at Fashion Tianhe Plaza, where Miss XS shopped to her hearts' content. It's a regular retail mall for a change, with oodles of local food stores to snack on. One food section of the mall runs a traditional Shanghainese theme, and that part of the mall was most elaborately constructed to fit the food theme. 

Virtual Reality is the current 'it' craze in China, and I had a go at VR+ 乐园. I did a double-take when I tried to pay, and the cashier apologetically mentioned they no longer accept cash payments. She seemed stunned I didn't have an e-commerce account. It costs RMB35 for 15 minutes of play, and the experience is worth every penny. Heck, we even had fun watching other people play, through a TV that broadcasted a player's live experience. When it was our go, they hooked us up to our visor, radio and weapon. The technology was surreal; I cocked my head, and in the virtual reality, my perspective where I was shooting zombies adjusted too. When one of those pesky zombies got too close for comfort, I inadvertently jumped back, and that put some additional distance between me and said zombie in the VR. Most remarkable. And best of all, we could continue shooting straight at the hordes of enemies in front of us, while quickly swiveling our heads sideways to keep a lookout on cheeky zombies sneaking up on us.  

My cousin-uncle and I

As we were playing, an employee took a few photos. As we wrapped our game up, they handed us a receipt with a QR code, to be scanned by WeChat to download those photos. Wow. WeChat, an instant messaging app, an e-commerce giant, an audio-guide for museums, and now... a private photo-sharing function between a business and its customers? It's a herald of the ecosystem that Whatsapp could fill in the future. No wonder Mark Zuckerberg spent $19 billion for Whatsapp. 

We returned to 唐人轩 for dinner [review found here], but not before dropping by 一点点 for our milk tea fix. It's a recent presence in Guangzhou, one that sparked a fanatic following with the rich undertones of milk in their milk teas. Come here for rich milky bubble tea, my cousin-uncle said, and to Hey Tea for milk-capped teas. My cup was very milky indeed, and perhaps even richer than the milk teas found in Melbourne. I enjoyed being able to choose not just the sweetness level of my drink, but also how hot I want it to be. I returned a few times over the course of my trip, and spied a fridge full of Anchor whipping cream. I told Miss XS that they probably uses half-and-half in their drinks, but she called me crazy. Hmph. 

There are multiple branches around Guangzhou, and it's usually an opportunistic buy. There's one within walking distance from Hilbin Hotel, and I had one in 上下九 （shang xia jiu), a popular shopping district.

双皮奶 (shuang pi nai - left), 凤凰奶湖 (phoenix nai hu - right)

When you are in 上下九, perhaps 南信牛奶甜品专家 (Nanxin Milk Desserts Specialists) is worth a quick visit. It was so renowned, as I typed 南信 into my Notes app, my iPhone auto-suggested 甜品. The place was packed, and you have to get a table first before joining the queue to order. As the name suggests, milk-based desserts are their specialties. Finally, a place to try 双皮奶! It's one of those things that are more popular abroad than with locals. People online are raving about it, but yet, no local that I'd asked seemed at all excited about it. Once or twice, I'd even got assured that 奶湖 (another traditional milk-based dessert) was nicer, and was told to order that instead. 

So I thought that I should try both, just to cover my bases. And well, chalk this one as another point towards the local tastes rather than to travel bloggers. I found 双皮奶 intensely sweet, a point not helped by it's thick cloying consistency, and the egg profile was too prominent for my liking. Indeed, I preferred the thinner, more nuanced 凤凰奶湖. 

Repeating my order of 凤凰奶湖 in 玫瑰甜品店 near Hilbin hotel (my relatives recommended this smaller store over the larger 百花甜品店 in the same area), I came to the same conclusion as the locals. Try 双皮奶 once to see what everybody is talking about, but don't expect too much from it. And yes, you should try 凤凰奶湖 while you're in the store. 

++++++++++++++++++++

Day five beckoned with the promise of delicious Chinese herbs. We're going shopping! When my family goes to Guangzhou, no trip is complete without a stop at 黄沙站 (huangsha metro), the district for Chinese herbs. 

The rows of street stalls are right next to Exit E on the left, just a little past 参鹿堂 (on Baidu Maps). I came with my parents, and as they were shopping for various herbs, I had time to explore the area. As we delved deeper into the stalls away from the station exit, we came across more specialised stores - ones that were dedicated solely to a herb, such as 当归 (dang gui - female ginseng) or chrysanthemum, in their dozens of permutations of origins and varieties.

In another block of street stalls, we went up to the second floor and found a deer store - something that I'd not seen before. My parents were excited - it's impossible to find preserved deer in this manner in Singapore anymore. Entire dried deer legs were hung up, and deer horns (sorted by deer sub-species) were available, sold either whole, in sections, or in thin slices. 

-

Herb-shopping aside, 黄沙站 is better known for being the closest metro station to 沙面岛 (Shamian Island). It's a tourist hotspot located across the road from the station exit. Since we had upcoming afternoon plans arrangements with some of our relatives to Panyu (South of Guangzhou), we returned to 沙面岛 on another later day. 


番禺区 (Panyu District) is home to 宝墨园 (Baomo Garden), a garden of southern China design. It's not the most convenient place to get to, and even by car, the traffic in the afternoon was gridlock (cue the immense guilt on having  our relatives bring us there!), but the grounds truly are spectacular. It was the most scenic place in Guangzhou in our week here.  

宝墨园

宝墨园 is home to a teeming koi population, and the interconnecting avenues between ponds let the fishes swim from one pond to another. As we fed fish food to a few koi in the corner of the park, we attracted koi from other ponds and before we knew it, they rushed in to join the party.  

Photo credit: taken by my cousin-uncle's dad

宝墨园 (Baomo Garden)

10 Shamian S St, 番禺区 Guangzhou Shi, Guangdong Sheng, China, 511487

Chimelong International Circus is the other attraction in Panyu that we went to. The standard ticket for their daily show is RMB300, and should be booked in advance online. There's no allocated seats within the circus, so come early and stake your claim. We reached an hour before the show started, but the best standard sections were already full. You can pay to upgrade for seat upgrades: an additional 80 or 200 RMB nets you better sections in the house. Chimelong runs a line-up on tourist entertainment here; circus aside, there's also a bird park, animal safari and ocean kingdom. 

The highlight was the team of acrobats performing death-defying stunts, twirling in the air all the while. It was spectacular.

Chimelong 

Chimelong Official Website

Yingbin Road, Panyu District, Guangzhou 511430, China

The show ends around 9pm, and we headed to 牛花粥 (niu hua zhou) nearby for supper. It's a restaurant that serves porridge, and a variety of beef cuts that you can add to your porridge and cook over a personal induction cooker.

My relatives mentioned that panyu district specialises in hor fun, and we ordered the Beef Brisket Hor Fun. The restaurant's selling-point is their individual servings of hotpot porridge, but we ended up loving the noodles even more. The fresh hor fun was soft, smooth and silky. Miss XS and I never had hor fun this spectacular before. Get the porridge if you must, but definitely get the hor fun too. 

  ++++++++++++++++++