We booked an impromptu trip to Guangzhou from 17 Nov 16 to 22 Nov 16, 5D4N! This was my very first time going to China!! We read the review on the smart local and they say Guangzhou is the new Bangkok so, we were inspired to go for a trip to Guangzhou, cause the pictures and all looked so pretty!
DAY 1
Arrive in Guangzhou
Lunch: Tao Tao Ju
Shopping: Shang Xia Jiu
Dinner: Hai Di Lao
Shopping: Bei Jing Lu
Day 2
Attraction: Million Sunflower Garden
Dinner: Bingsheng Pinwei
Attraction: Canton Tower
Day 3
Tea shopping: Fang Chun Tea Market
Dinner: Hai Di Lao
Day 4
Brunch: McDonalds
Attraction: Baiyun Shan
Attraction: Shamian Island
Hightea: Orient Express
Shopping: Shang Xia Jiu
Dinner: Saizeriya
Day 5
Home Sweet Home
17-18 Nov 16
We took an overnight flight on scoot at 10:10pm and reached Guangzhou at an unearthly hour of 2:05am in the morning. The Baiyun International airport was nicer than I expected. But because of the timing, the shops in the airport were all closed! We went on to find a cab to bring us to our hotel. The first few taxi drivers tried to cheat us and quoted us 300 yuan!! I was quite determined NOT to get scammed by the taxi drivers in other countries as much as possible so I had to do my research. Haha so from my research, the taxi from the airport to my hotel is about 120 yuan. I damn aunty so I’ve planned and checked everythingggg before we went Guangzhou. HAHA anyways we managed to get a cab that was willing to charge us by the meter!! YAY! 😀 End up we only paid like 130 yuan or something like that.
We stayed at the Ocean Hotel, it is a four star hotel, situated about 10-15 minutes walking distance from the nearest metro station. We just had to walk a stretch all the way straight to reach, so it’s pretty easy to locate. Anyways, we reached the hotel at 3am and the hotel was nicer than I expected. I thought the name is just Ocean hotel, but didn’t expect it to be ocean and boat themed, so it’s like quite cute. Anyways, we just chilled and loitered around the hotel lobby (cause I didn’t book the extra night), and went around the 7-11 to eat. And chatted with the hotel staffs, we had so much time; the GM became our friend throughout the trip. We waited till about 6am & they took pity on us and gave us early check-in and gave us a free-upgrade once the guests checked-out. ❤ Damn nice! Haha we were quite thankful.. and cause I could finally escape the lobby where I got bitten by mosquitoes.
1st day, we visited the Tao Tao Ju (陶陶居)as it is the oldest dim sum restaurant in Guangzhou. We alighted at Culture Park Metro Station and had a long walk before reaching the Shang Xia Jiu district. Shang Xia Jiu was our favorite place to do our shopping however; we went during November so the clothes were mainly winter wear. We had Hai Di Hao for our dinner and it was awesome! It’s like the Hai Di Lao in Singapore, but that day when we went, there was a performance where the person kept changing his face. The price for the food is also cheaper!
SG to GZ
Taxi guide 🙂
Ocean Hotel
Hotel view from our room
we got the 3 days unlimited metro access pass
metro station to shang xia jiu
finally arrived at shang xia jiu
this calls for a celebratory selfieeee
at tao tao jiu for brunch
hehe
gongcha in gz is yummy
at beijing lu
damn interesting so we had to try it
erm tastes like plastic.. haha its v ew.
19 Nov 16
2nd day of the trip, we visited the Million Sunflower Garden. It’s probably one of my favorite attraction cause there were many pretty flowers and nice place to take lots of pictures! We took the metro to Jiaomen and transferred to a bus at the interchange. Took about 2 hours long bus journey ride to the place, but I enjoyed the ride cause we got to see the scenery. J
At night, we had dinner at Bingsheng Pinwei 炳胜品味 and tried their water ghost heavy tofu (水鬼重豆腐), roast meat and their bun.. (heard that the polo bun was nice, but it was sold out so we tried the other bun instead, but it’s nice too)
After dinner, we went to visit the iconic Canton Tower. 😀
our bus ticket for the 2 hours long ride
bus selfie
hellloo
finally arrived at million sunflower garden
heart
buy me this housee
there weren’t million sunflowers though
haha self-entertaining himself when no-one is looking at the camera
At Bing sheng pin wei:
Our dishes at bing sheng pin wei
and a random giant peanut
20 Nov 16
3rd day, we had our brunch at a random restaurant to have wanton noodles. It’s actually quite good. And after that, there’s this pastry shop few shops down & I got this “Ham Shui Kok” that’s like damn nice.. hahahah. The skin outside was crispy but the inside was soft with red bean fillings. Ohhhh memories, I remember that it was so good! Moving on, we headed over to Fangcun Tea Markets (芳村/南方茶叶总汇), it’s a stretch of shops & opposite there are more shops where they sell tea. There’s damn a lot of selection that we were all blur and donno where to start. In the end, we just chose a shop and had a tea session. 😀 Left the shop with huge bags of lavender, rose, chrysanthemum, pu-er, tie guan yin and green tea. Haha I think we went overboard on the tea..?
Afterwards, we headed to Hai Di Lao again for dinner cause somebody got hooked onto Hai Di Lao. *coughs* *the guys*
the random noodle shop that has awesome wanton noodles
ham shui kok
so beautifullllll ❤
tea session
group pic
hai di lao
21 Nov 16
4th day, we went to Baiyun Shan! Took the cable car, went to have McDonalds, we were all damn lazy so we didn’t climb anywhere and just took the cable car down. Took some pictures to act like we climbed. 😀 #asif #fatties
After that, we took a cab to Shamian Island to check out. But there’s nothing much there.. was quite disappointing and it wasn’t even that nice. :p We went to the Orient Express to try out. The concept is fine dining in a train. The food was quite ex and dots.
Headed back to Shang Xia Jiu to our final shopping +get some goodies, dinner at Saizeriya and flew back home!
Took the cable car up to bai yun shan
it was a totoro kinda day
weee
orient express at shamian island
choo choo
🙂
last night at gz, had saizeriya
night scene in shang xia jiu
time to fly back home ❤
TBH after I booked the flight, I was worried that China’s going to be very different from Singapore and some people told me the toilets there is dots. I got paranoid thinking how is it going to be there and how am I going to use the toilet so I tried as much to avoid using the toilet as much as possible & only went when I’m back in the hotel/ when I’m in shopping malls/ at haidilao. If you’d ask me whether I would come back again, I’d say most probably not because I’ve already been to the places I wanted to visit. I would most probably use the time and money to travel to somewhere I’ve never been to before. I think I prefer BKK more. But if you haven’t been to Guangzhou before, you should totally go and check the places out. J Oh yes, forgot to mention that we had to say we were Malaysians cause GZ ppl doesn’t like Singaporeans.. So yeah I feel so accomplished after documenting my Guangzhou trip after 5 months!!! Took me long enough! HAHA. Till next time! SMILEEEEE!! ❤
The flight tickets were on promotion for SGD216 total for both ways.
We stayed at Ocean Hotel SGD88.75 for room/night so each of us paid SGD177.44 for the hotel.
Expenses I budgeted for myself SGD100/day
Total expenses for the trip: SGD793.44