Morning - Shamian Island
Shamian is a sandbank in the Pearl River that was divided into British and French concessions after 1859 and laid out with gardens, consulates, churches and trading houses. Two thirds of a mile of arcaded buildings survive on a car-free island, and the banyan avenue in the middle is where the city comes to be photographed on a wedding day. Your guide reads the facades - the verandas, the shuttered windows, the colonial-era banks - and explains how the treaty-port century shaped the city.
Late morning - Xiguan and the arcades
Cross into the older Chinese city. Xiguan was the merchant quarter, and its qilou shophouses - a shop at street level, a home above, and a covered walkway in front for shade and shelter - still line several streets. You walk Enning Road and the restored Yongqing Fang lanes, past ancestral halls and small temples.
Lunch
Congee, rice-noodle rolls and a Cantonese soup at a neighbourhood restaurant.
Afternoon - The Pearl River waterfront
Walk down to the river and along the promenade, past the riverside churches and the docks that made Guangzhou China's southern trading gate, with the Canton Tower across the water on the far bank.
Evening - Free by the river
The walk ends at the waterfront, where you can stay for the evening lights or be returned to your hotel.
Meals
Lunch
Accommodation
Day tour - no hotel night included.
