Guangzhou was our gateway into China — just the four of us: Rene, Kim, Aiden and Lucas.
Arriving into Guangzhou, the sheer size hits you first. This isn’t just a big city — it’s a sprawling megacity built on more than 2,000 years of history, now layered with relentless modern growth. Yet it is super clean everywhere and despite all the traffic it is super quiet due to everyone driving electric bikes and cars.
First stop in the morning was Shamian Island. Walking onto Shamian Island feels like stepping into Europe. Tree-lined streets, colonial mansions, quiet cafés — it couldn’t be more different from the rest of the city.
But this place carries a complicated history. After the Opium Wars in the 19th century, this small island was carved out and divided between British and French control, becoming a foreign enclave in China.
What remains today is a fascinating blend of cultures — European architecture, Chinese life, and a sense of calm that feels almost surreal in a city like this.
For us, it was one of those rare travel moments where everything slows down. The boys could wander, Kim could soak in the atmosphere, and I found myself drawn to the history that I have read about in numerous books.
It’s easy to be distracted by Guangzhou’s scale — the towers, the traffic, the constant movement — but the real character of the city reveals itself when you step off the main roads and into the narrow alleyways.
These laneways are where life compresses.
The streets tighten, the noise softens into something more human, and suddenly you’re walking through someone’s everyday world. Open doorways reveal small kitchens in full swing, laundry hangs overhead like a patchwork sky, and scooters squeeze past with barely enough room to spare.
This is where Guangzhou slows down.
We wandered without much of a plan, turning corners simply because they looked interesting. The boys quickly realised this was a different kind of exploring — not landmarks, but observation. Small moments. A nod from a local, a curious glance, someone going about their day completely unfazed by four outsiders passing through.
For me, this was where the camera came alive. Not because of anything grand, but because of the texture — worn walls, layered history, faces that told stories without words.
Not far from the bustle of the city, we found ourselves wandering into the area around the Guangdong Cantonese Opera Museum — and it turned out to be one of the most unexpectedly fascinating parts of Guangzhou.
The museum itself is beautifully designed, built in the style of traditional Lingnan architecture, with ornate roofs, carved woodwork, and peaceful courtyards. But what really drew us in wasn’t just the building — it was what was happening around it.
Locals were gathering, dressed in elaborate Cantonese opera costumes — vibrant silks, intricate embroidery, and dramatic makeup. Some were performers, others simply enthusiasts, but all of them carried a quiet pride in what they were part of.
What made it so compelling was how natural it all felt.
People were chatting, adjusting costumes, helping each other prepare, and taking photos — not for tourists, but for themselves. It wasn’t staged or curated. It was a living tradition, still very much part of everyday culture.
Cantonese opera has deep roots in southern China, blending music, storytelling, martial arts, and symbolism into a highly stylised art form that dates back hundreds of years. And here, in this small pocket of Guangzhou, it wasn’t something preserved behind glass — it was still alive.
Beyond the main roads, the city unfolds through a rhythm of small shops and daily rituals. Narrow storefronts spill out onto the pavement — fruit stacked in careful pyramids, hardware stores packed floor to ceiling, tiny eateries with a handful of stools and a constant flow of regulars. There’s no clear boundary between business and street; everything blends together into one continuous, living space.
And then, almost quietly, you start to notice them — the bronze statues.
They’re scattered throughout the city, often without fanfare. A fisherman hauling in a net. A street vendor mid-sale. Children playing. Scenes from another time, frozen in metal but placed right in the middle of modern Guangzhou.
They’re easy to walk past if you’re not paying attention.
But once you notice them, they change the way you see the city.
These aren’t grand monuments to emperors or victories — they’re tributes to everyday life. They reflect the trading roots of Guangzhou, once one of China’s most important ports and the starting point of the Maritime Silk Road. For centuries, this was a city defined by commerce, movement, and connection to the outside world.
And those stories are still here — just told in quieter ways.
One evening in Guangzhou took a different turn.
Kim had arranged to meet an old colleague, and instead of the street-side eateries and small local restaurants we’d been exploring, we were taken somewhere altogether more elaborate.
From the outside, it didn’t immediately give much away. But once inside, the scale revealed itself.
The restaurant unfolded like a maze — long corridors branching into more corridors, each lined with private dining rooms hidden behind heavy doors. It felt less like a restaurant and more like a series of discreet, self-contained worlds. Every group tucked away in their own space, out of sight, out of earshot.
You couldn’t help but wonder what kinds of conversations these rooms had hosted over time. Business deals, family negotiations, celebrations, quiet discussions — the kind of interactions that are never meant to spill into the public space.
There’s a long tradition of private dining in China, especially in cities like Guangzhou where relationships — guanxi — are central to both business and social life. Meals aren’t just about food; they’re about trust, hierarchy, and connection. And spaces like this are designed for exactly that.
For us, it felt like stepping briefly into that world.
The food itself was exceptional — beautifully presented, carefully paced, and clearly designed to impress. But interestingly, it wasn’t the local Cantonese street-style cuisine we’d been expecting. This was something more refined, more international in influence, almost curated to suit a different kind of audience.
For the boys, the novelty was in the setting — their own private room, the formality of it all. For Kim, it was a chance to reconnect. And for me, it was the atmosphere that lingered — the sense that behind every closed door, a different story was unfolding.
It was a completely different side of Guangzhou.
Not the chaotic, open, street-level city we’d come to know — but something quieter, more controlled, and in its own way, just as revealing.
After dinner, we stepped back out into the night and made our way down to the river, drawn by the glow of the Canton Tower rising in the distance.
If the restaurant had felt enclosed and hidden, this was the complete opposite.
The Pearl River opens everything up. Wide promenades, open air, and a steady flow of people out enjoying the evening — families, couples, groups of friends, all moving at a slower, more relaxed pace than the daytime rush.
And then there’s the tower.
Up close, the Canton Tower doesn’t just dominate the skyline — it feels almost unreal. Its twisting structure is lit in shifting colours, constantly changing, reflecting off the river below. Boats drift past, their own lights adding to the scene, and the whole area takes on a slightly surreal, almost cinematic feel.
The boys were immediately drawn to the energy of it — the lights, the movement, the scale. For them, this was Guangzhou at its most exciting.
The Pearl River has been the lifeblood of Guangzhou for centuries — the reason the city became one of China’s most important trading ports, connecting it to the outside world long before the skyscrapers arrived.
Now, instead of trading ships, it’s light shows and river cruises.
Somewhere in the middle of Guangzhou’s busy streets, we stumbled across something completely unexpected — and for Lucas, it may well have been the highlight of the entire city.
A shop where everything looked like it belonged in a museum… but was made entirely of chocolate.
Not just small displays or decorative pieces, but full-scale creations. Life-sized animals stood frozen mid-step — elephants, giraffes, creatures you’d expect to find on the African savannah, not in a shop in southern China. Alongside them were intricate replicas of local architecture, temples and buildings recreated in astonishing detail, all in chocolate.
At first, it didn’t quite register. The level of craftsmanship made it hard to believe it wasn’t carved wood or painted resin. But the closer you looked, the more surreal it became — every surface, every texture, every tiny detail… chocolate.
Lucas was completely in his element.
You could see the internal conflict playing out — admiration versus appetite. Was this something to photograph, or something to eat? (The answer, unfortunately, was mostly the former.)
