Comprehensive Way to Explore All the Best Highlights of Guangdong Province
Guangdong Province is situated at the southernmost tip of mainland China bordering Hong Kong and Macau. It has a number of unique characteristics that make it different from the rest of China, including dialects, folk customs, cuisine, history and culture. Exciting modernity blends with the region’s ancient Lingnan culture, as well as its exclusive historical and natural attractions, to make Guangdong Province a fascinating travel destination.
Besides the brilliant culture and natural beauty, most of travelers get to Guangdong to seek for deep cultural connections as well as get back their homeland to witness the huge change and fast development arose their complicated feelings from their innermost heart. This 6-days Guangdong tour takes you get to the most familiar parts in and around Guangzhou (Guangzhou - Foshan - Jiangmen - Shenzhen). You’ll head to "the Hometown of Lingnan Culture" to enjoy the true art of Lingnan architecture and folk Lion dance and one more day takes you to the overseas Chinese homeland to explore the UNESCO World Heritage Site - Kaiping Diaolou & Villages. Many stunning attractions and great experience are combined into one trip which are definitely worth your exploration. Go with us!
Welcome to Guangzhou, the City of Rams! Situated in south China, Guangzhou is a “hot” metropolis for relaxation, food exploration, business communication and seeking of culture, history, arts of Lingnan Area. Upon your arrival, your local guide and driver will meet you at the arrival hall of Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport or railway stations in Guangzhou and then escort you to your hotel in downtown and help you check in. The rest of the day is free on your own to take a nice break or explore this city.
Arrival Idea: Guangzhou is a large international city with great transportation connections including many international and domestic flights to and from. Furthermore, high speed trains are quite convenient from most domestic cities including Hong Kong (about 1 hour), Shenzhen (0.5-1.5 hours), Guilin (2.5-3.5 hours), Beijing (8-10 hours), Shanghai (7-8.5 hours), Chengdu (9-10 hours), Guiyang (4-6.5 hours), Xian (8-9 hours), Hangzhou (6-7.5 hours), and so on.
Evening Optional Experience: Enjoy the 70-minute fascinating Pearl River night cruise sailing along the mother river of Guangzhou people and soak in the wonderful sightseeing of lights and neon of historical architectures and new modern towering buildings to feel the pulse of this developed city. You won’t miss the Canton Tower during the cruise.
After breakfast, your local guide and driver will pick you up at your hotel. Start to explore the old and new Guangzhou City from Yuexiu Park, the largest city park in Guangzhou. Stroll leisurely in the verdant park to see the Five Rams Statue from which you will savor the interesting legendary story of the five rams and know why Guangzhou is called the “City of Rams”. Then, continue to appreciate a five-storey ancient structure in red - Zhenhai Tower which was changed as Guangzhou Museum. Have a brief learning about Guangzhou’s over 2000 years’ history and if you like, climb up the tower to get a bird’s-eye view of Guangzhou City. After the morning stretching with fresh air, move your steps to the nearby Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall which was built in memory of the great revolutionist Sun Yat-sen. Enjoy the Chinese and Western combining styled octagon-shaped main building in bright red and blue from outside. Enter the hall to know Dr. Sun deeper with excellent exhibitions of his biography and contribution to the country and people, and get a simple learning about the contemporary history of China in the 18th - 19th centuries. Before leaving, admire the 5.5-meter tall bronze statue of Dr. Sun outside in the yard and show your respect to this world famous great Father of the Nation in China.
In this afternoon, visit the must-see Chen Clan Ancestral Hall which is regarded as the largest, most beautifully decorated and best preserved traditional ancestral temple in Guangdong Province. Roam among the tranquil houses and courtyards built during 1888-1894 to discover its architectural origin and find out whether it was an ancestral hall or an academy for the Chen Family in Guangdong initially. Since it is famous as the “Pearl of Lingnan Architectural Art”, you will taste the super exquisite colorful decorations of vivid patterns of various flora and fauna, figures and immortals to feel the highly skillful construction and decoration of Lingnan people and know their typical folk culture and best wishes of harvest and prosperity in ancient China. Later, be transferred for about 10 minutes’ driving to see the quite different Shamian Island where over 150 European styled old buildings from the colonial period from 19th century are well preserved for a nice savory. Take a relaxing walk in the strongly exotic street block in emerald and imagine the past life and changes of Guangzhou told by those historical remains.
After the exploration, be transferred to the urban central axis in Zhujiang New Town to see the modern cityscape of Guangzhou at Huacheng Square. Have a leisure stroll between the glittery skyscrapers and peculiar shaped modern buildings to feel the fast development of this metropolis. Most importantly, appreciate the slim outline of the iconic Canton Tower on the opposite bank of Pearl River.
After the tour, be escorted back to your hotel.
After breakfast, your local guide and driver will pick you up from your hotel in Guangzhou downtown and drive about 1 hour to Foshan City that is famous for martial arts, ceramics and lion dancing.
Start your cultural exploration from the must-visit Ancestral Temple. Here with rich arrays of relics and materials, you will have a good understanding of Yip Man (Ye Wen) and Wong Fei Hung (Huang Feihong), two real masters of martial arts in modern times of China who have influences on the world about Kung Fu in China! Yip Man is a master of Wing Chun Martial Art and is the master of the world well known Bruce Lee. Wong Fei Hung is a representative master of Hung boxing, and also excellent at lion dance. You won’t miss the wonderful live lion dance performance (0.5 hour) to enjoy the folk art combining martial arts, dance and music together and know why it is so favored by Cantonese around the world on festivals and red-letter days. Furthermore, you will appreciate many fantastic typical Lingnan styled decorations of vivid sculptures and carvings about historic stories and traditional operas.
Continue your steps to the nearby Lingnan Tiandi, once was the rich area in Foshan and now is a top best to admire the multiple exquisite historic Lingnan constructions to seek the traditional culture of Foshan as a famous thousand-year-old commercial city. Walk in leisure to savor the prosperity left and the modern leisure life style along the winding paved streets. If you are interested, take a short visit to the nearby Guangdong Cantonese Opera Museum to have a basic understanding of Cantonese opera.
Then, be driven about 15 minutes to visit Ancient Nanfeng Kiln in Shiwan. This site tells the high status of Shiwan in Foshan as the “Capital of Ceramics in Southern China”. Its rare Nanfeng Kiln and Gao Kiln built 500 years ago and listed in the World Guinness Record are still under production. Visit the kilns, houses and paths to feel the past bustling production by ancient Foshan workers. Besides, take another fun stroll on Shiwan Doll Street outside, where countless interesting ceramic dolls with high skills are displayed in those shops hidden in the ancient arcade buildings.
Optional Cultural Experience: You can also enrich your Foshan cultural experience by learning the pottery art making (0.5 hour), martial arts practicing (1 hour) or paper cutting (1 hour) during your visit at Ancient Nanfeng Kiln. Such optional cultural activities need extra fees. Just tell us if you are interested.
Tip of Lion Dance Performance: The Lion Dance performance in Ancestral Hall is held on 10:00-10:40, 14:15-14:55 and 15:30-16:10 every day, however, it is not available on rainy days.
After the tour, be transferred to your hotel in Foshan.
In this morning, you’ll be driven from Foshan to Kaiping Diaolou and Villages in Jiangmen City (about 2-2.5 hours’ driving). The over 1,800 precious and well-kept watchtowers together was listed as a World Cultural Heritage Site in 2007 with rich value to know culture and history of overseas Chinese from Guangdong in the 16th - 19th centuries. Our guide will take you to appreciate Li Garden and Zili Village, the two most popular and featured diaolou villages. Besides the outlook of the western styled watchtowers, you won’t miss to enter the watchtower buildings and have a historic look at the tasteful layout with lots of furnishing and decorations imported from overseas countries. Every detail tells the particular life and house of overseas Chinese who worked hard to succeed in another country and pursued a better future of their family and nation.
First visit Li Garden that is treated as a top excellent private garden built by overseas Chinese. Wander in the villa styled garden to admire its outstanding combination of typical traditional classic garden in ancient China and graceful features of European and American villa constructions. Take your time to discover every corner and every floor to savor the interest of the lovely Chinese pond, pavilion, bridge, Western styled artistic decorations and local Lingnan featured sculptures and carvings.
In the afternoon, you will be transferred for about 10 minutes to the nearby Zili Village. This village has the largest number of diaolou buildings among all the four Kaiping villages designated by the UNESCO, showing the silver age of Kaiping diaolous with delicate diaolou buildings distributed harmoniously. Admire its rich western styled watchtowers dotted on the contrast Chinese Lingnan local countryside to find out why it is one of the best beautiful diaolou villages in China. Just get to the top of those watchtowers where you will take nice photos of the full view of watchtower clusters with the backdrop of idyllic countryside sightseeing of Lingnan village, including blossoms, pond, farm lands, winding rural paths, domestic animals, etc. After the sightseeing, be driven for about 3 hours back to Guangzhou. Have a nice sleep!
Useful Tips for Kaiping Diaolou and Village Photography: 1. March to April is good for shooting watchtowers with large scaled golden rape flowers; June to July is great to catch vibrant scene of verdant paddy fields; July to August is the high season for shooting lovely lotus flowers and the dancing lotus leaves. 2. Nearly all watchtowers are allowed to go up for village full view, and the top one recommendation is Longsheng Building near Ju’an Building in Zili Village.
In this morning, you will be picked up at your hotel and be escorted to the railway station for a high speed train to Shenzhen, which needs about 0.5-1.5 hours. Upon arrival, you will be met by your local guide at the arrival hall of the train station. Your amazing Shenzhen tour starts. First, you will see the modern face of Shenzhen by getting atop the 600-meter tall skyscraper - Ping’an Financial Center. It is the tallest building in Shenzhen, the second tallest building in China and the 4th tallest building in the world. Reach Free Sky at 116th floor to catch a panoramic view of Shenzhen as well as overlook Hong Kong in far distance. Afterwards, be driven to Shenzhen Museum for a better understanding about this migrant city turning from a fishing village to the first-tier class metropolis in China within 40 years. Enjoy many informative displays and learn the history from ancient times to modern life.
In this afternoon, be transferred to Splendid China Folk Village to have a glimpse of vast China and experience the colorful culture of ethnic minorities of China. Walk and recognize the iconic sites in Splendid China Miniature Park which is composed of 82 reproductions of beautiful scenery, grand architecture, historical sites and traditional dwellings of China. You won’t miss Forbidden City, Great Wall, Terracotta Warriors, Potala Palace, Mogao Caves, Li River, Leshan Giant Buddha, Stone Forest etc. Traveling across China within short time, you’ll be enchanted with China’s profound history, culture, natural beauty, palaces, temples and pagodas in one go. Then, take a stroll at China Folk Culture Village to explore 27 different ethnic villages built with the proportion of 1:1, experience brilliant culture, unique folk customs and hospitality of the ethnic groups. Watch interesting performances at their villages at the scheduled time. If your time allows, enjoy the fantastic performance called “New Oriental Neon Costumes” at Impression China Theater at 17:00, and “Dragon and Phoenix Dance” at Phoenix Square at 19:30.
Today, you will say goodbye with Shenzhen! After breakfast, your local guide and driver will send you from your hotel to the airport, train station or port to catch the flight / train / Ferry to your next destination or home. Service ends!
Shenzhen-Hong Kong Departure Ideas: Shenzhen borders Hong Kong in the south well linked by high speed train, metro, or coach/bus. There are 10 checkpoints you can select to leave for Hong Kong from Shenzhen. If you need more info, please feel free to contact our professional travel consultants.
Hong Kong offers a host of memorable tourist attractions within its compact area, with the Victoria Peak, Victoria Harbour and the Tian Tan Giant Buddha among the most awe-inspiring.
You'll be amazed by the diverse contrasts and close proximity of stunning cityscapes and soaring mountains, heritage sites and extensive green countryside.
Guilin, the darling of tourists!
Guilin is famous for having the best landscape under Heaven which can be seen in three most popular places - Guilin, Yangshuo and Longsheng. Only 3 days are needed to get them all in a single trip. You will visit the essential sites in the city, enjoy a relaxing cruise along Li River, and have a pleasant time of countryside exploration in Yangshuo Town. Another highlight is the unique trip to Longji Terrace which is an ideal place for experiencing ethnic culture, hiking and photography.
Hong Kong / Shenzhen / Macau / Hong Kong
Hong Kong / Guangzhou / Shenzhen / Macau / Hong Kong
Hong Kong / Guangzhou / Macau / Hong Kong
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“WONDERFUL 25 DAYS IN CHINA - PRIVATE TOUR”
“Awesome China tour from northeast to southwest”
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