Morning - the island
Shamian Island is a sandbank in the Pearl River laid out as a British and French concession after 1859: car-free, planted with banyans, and lined with arcaded colonial buildings that now hold cafes, bakeries and the kind of small restaurant that only survives when the rents are old. It is the gentlest place in Guangzhou to start a food day, and it gives you the river, the climate and the treaty-port century in one flat shaded walk before the eating begins in earnest.
Late morning - dim sum in the old city
From the island it is a short drive into the old commercial quarter for dim sum done as the city does it: har gow, siu mai, char siu bao, cheung fun, a pot of pu'er, and the etiquette that goes with the table - two fingers tapped in thanks for the pour, the pot lid left open when you want more. Your guide orders against the kitchen's strengths rather than against the menu's photographs, and explains why Cantonese cooking is built on steaming, poaching and short high-heat stir-frying rather than on spice.
Lunch
Dim sum, taken as lunch.
Afternoon - the market and the tea shop
The afternoon is a working market and a tea shop. The market supplies the argument: Cantonese food is coastal, subtropical and obsessive about freshness, and you can see all three in the tanks, trays and drying racks. The tea shop then deals with the other half of yum cha, which is the cha - two or three teas tasted properly, enough to understand why the same leaf is bought at wildly different prices and what the shopkeeper is listening for when you describe what you like.
Evening - dinner on the river
Dinner is the day's set piece, taken with the water in front of you and the bridges and towers lit across it. The order is deliberate and simple: a soup, steamed fish, a roast, greens, rice. Where the weather allows, the table is outside. On the way back your guide will point out what you are looking at across the river, so that the last thing you do in Guangzhou is understand its skyline.
Meals
Lunch, Dinner
Accommodation
Day programme - no hotel night included.
