Morning - Yum cha, the Cantonese institution
Guangzhou drinks tea in the morning, and eats while it does. You sit in a family teahouse where the trolleys still come round and order the standard set: har gow, steamed prawn dumplings with a pleated translucent skin; siu mai; char siu bao, the barbecue pork bun; cheung fun, rolled rice-noodle sheets; and a pot of pu'er or chrysanthemum tea. Your guide explains the etiquette - tapping two fingers on the table to thank whoever pours, and leaving the lid ajar when you want more water.
Late morning - Market and kitchen
Walk a wet market to see the produce that defines Cantonese food: live seafood in tanks, rice noodles made fresh, flowering chives, water chestnuts and a dozen varieties of dried seafood. Then step into a restaurant kitchen at a quiet hour to watch the wok work that gives Cantonese stir-fries their smoky edge, and see rice-noodle sheets steamed and rolled to order.
Lunch
A Cantonese restaurant lunch built around steamed fish, roast meats and seasonal greens.
Afternoon - Tea, and the old commercial quarter
Taste two or three teas at a specialist shop in the old commercial quarter, then walk the covered arcades of the Xiguan district, where the shophouse colonnades were designed for a climate of sun and sudden rain.
Evening - Dinner and a roasts shop
Dinner features Cantonese roast meats - char siu, roast goose and crisp pork belly - carved at a shop counter and eaten with rice.
Meals
Lunch, Dinner
Accommodation
Day tour - no hotel night included.
