4 Days 3 Nights (4D3N) Travel Itinerary in Guangzhou, China

I’ve never been to China before. So my first ever trip to Guangzhou with my mama (YAS! Our first daughter-mother trip!), China is a milestone for me. If this will be your first trip to Guangzhou too I’m going to show you what you can expect through my experiences and without wasting your time, let me go straight to what you need to know and prepare for the trip.

Visa

Visa is required to visit China and the application differ for countries. There use to be Visa on arrival in Guangzhou but now is no longer available in Guangzhou. You have to apply through online / by your well-known agency to proceed for you.

Bring Cash / Cashless 

I had questions like, “can the stores accept cash or do they only accept WeChat Pay?”, "how can foreigners use WeChat Pay?”, "Do they accept foreign credit cards (Visa/MC) or do they only accept China Union Pay?".

So finally got the answers and I hope this would be useful for anyone who's planning their first trip to China too. As a tourist, I would strongly advise to prepare more cash for the trips as very rare shops accept Mastercard/Visa unless you able to use Alipay and wechat cashless payment which link with a China bank account.  

And if you're running out of cash… Money changers were hard to find along the streets but banks are everywhere.

Sim Card

Apart from this, you have to get the right travel sims card to ensure that you can use WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and Google in China. Otherwise, you will need to download Virtual Private Network (VPN) on your phone to bypass the firewall. You can choose to use the free VPN service (e.g. Lantern) but I will strongly recommend to get a travel sims card via klook / kkday.

And if you didn’t get any, you will definitely come across a sim card booth at Baiyun International Airport at the luggage collection area. My advice, DO NOT BUY that sim card, why? It is over price. So, if you must buy a sim card, have a little patient and purchase them in the city at any Telco provider shops or booths.

Hotel Accommodation

So I did some extensive research for myself on which area I should stay in Guangzhou. I found out Beijing Road location is the best, in terms of convenience for finding transportation, food, most popular shopping streets and walking distance to local attractions.

We booked a 4d3n stay with via Booking.com for the first 4 days of our trip. I chose this because of the location is super awesome and I strongly recommend it because many popular eateries, restaurants and shopping street are just a walking distance away.

Useful Apps to have

I'd recommend anyone to use these apps to do their research and itinerary planning~

·       Xiaohongshu (小红书) - available in Chinese only

I love this app and I use it everywhere since after recommended by my cousin and it's like a combination of Instagram + Pinterest. You just need to enter a keyword (for instance , "广州" Guangzhou) and you can expect to see posts that can be related to food, shopping and leisure to your keyword shared by the user.

·       Dianping (大众点评) - available in Chinese only

Chinese-equivalent of Tripadvisor where people would review places, mostly on food. In terms of features, like recommending "restaurants near you” and "popular restaurants", they are pretty much similar. But the user experience of the Dianping is so good and user friendly. This app is definitely a must have if you want to know where and what the locals enjoy eating. I personally visited a lot of restaurants recommended by the locals in the app!

·       Didi (滴滴) - available in English and Chinese

Didi is a ride-hailing app (just like Uber / Grab) in China and it makes our transportation around GZ so convenient! It accepts international credit card such as Visa and Mastercard as their payment. I encourage you to engage to the premium cars as the drivers are supposed to be verified by Didi. Even though it might be more expensive, it has a higher assurance for your safety.

·       Baidu (百度) & Baidu Maps (百度地图)

Baidu and Baidu Maps are the equivalent of Google and Google Maps in China and it's definitely a must-have for you to navigate your way around.

Public Transportation

The metro system in Guangzhou is so well established and travelling around the city was so convenient for us. It's super affordable! They offer day passes too but we didn’t get it : 1-day and 3-day at RMB 20 and RMB 50 respectively which allows for unlimited rides for the next 24 hrs or 72 hrs from the first time you utilize the card.

And… if you're feeling lazy, you can always fall back to Didi which in my opinion is not expensive for a city-state like this.

Guangzhou - the itinerary can be designed for two days of travel arrangements

D1: Beijing Road (Metro Park Front Station)→Chenjiatun (Chenjiatun Station)→ Shangxiajiu Pedestrian Street (Changshou Road Station)→Walk→Xiguan Ancient House→Shamian (Huangsha Station)→Walk→Shifang Sacred Heart Cathedral (Haizhu Square Station)→Return to Beijing Road (go to night)

D2; Sports Center (Sports West Metro)→Pedestrian→(Tianhe City, Zhengjia Square, Victoria City, Book Center, Taikoo Hui, CITIC Building)-----→BRT→Zhujiang New Town (Guangdong Museum, Guangzhou Library, West Tower, Guangzhou Opera House, Haixinsha) → In the evening, the subway APM crosses the river and goes to the top of the Guangzhou Tower, then the night of the day. Return to Beijing Road for dinner.