Road Trip Day! | Guangdong | CHINA

The southern province of Guangdong is among the wealthiest and most forward-thinking in China, with a tradition of looking out across the South China Sea to the tropical regions beyond for trade and settlement. Indeed a large proportion of overseas Chinese hail from these parts, and what the ­Western world knows as “Chinese” food is almost without exception the ­distinctive cuisine of Guangdong.

Anchored by the sprawling city of Guangzhou, the province is also decisively set apart from the Chinese heartland by language: Cantonese is a dialect with a rich linguistic heritage, and most southerners are more at ease speaking their mother tongue than they are the national language, Mandarin. Even on a physical level, locals differ markedly from their northern relations, who are typically taller, stockier and fairer-skinned. In recent times Shenzhen and the Pearl River Delta – immediately to the north of Hong Kong – have developed at breakneck speed to become China’s largest manufacturing zone, pulling in migrant workers by the million from the poorer hinterland.

With a population of more than 10 million, Guangzhou is one of China’s richest and most progressive cities. It lies astride the Zhu Jiang or Pearl River, the country’s fifth-longest river, which links the metropolis to the South China Sea. The city is famed for its cuisine: dim sum, also known as yum cha, is at its very best here.

The most attractive part of Guangzhou is unquestionably Shamian Island, which evokes the atmosphere of 19th-century colonial Canton. This small residential enclave, shaded by banyan trees, was once home to a foreign colony in the era of the Western concessions. The stately European-style buildings, including old banks, factories and churches, have been spruced up, and Shamian’s wide, shaded streets are free from the incessant traffic that plagues the rest of the city. A pleasant riverside park affords a panorama across the busy stretch of water, with an endlessly changing procession of varied ferryboats, freighters, junks, low-lying sampans – and even the odd tanker and gunboat.

Shenzhen is a busy Special ­Economic Zone on the border with Hong Kong, an economic miracle and magnet for overseas investors. For the typical overseas tourist venturing into mainland China for a day or two from Hong Kong, it provides a fascinating glimpse of changing China. It may lack cultural sophistication, but it makes up for this with bargain shopping, wild nightlife and various US-style theme parks.

One of Guangdong’s more agreeable cities and a favourite destination for Hong Kongers and mainland tourists, Zhaoqing sits on the Xi Jiang River, 110km (68 miles) west of Guang­zhou. The town is famous for its Qixing Yan (Seven Star Crags), a range of limestone peaks that rise from a man-made lake in the north of town. Extravagant comparisons with Guilin are wide of the mark, but the crags are picturesque in the right light conditions and set in pleasant surroundings.

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