Guangzhou Tour from Hong Kong

[Jamietravelstheworld]

Has anyone done a day trip from Hong Kong to Guangzhou? I'd love to find a guide or tour that starts and returns to Hong Kong, not one where you have to get yourself to Guangzhou. Any suggestions or experiences?

[ryndam]

5 hours ago, jamieandsam said:

Has anyone done a day trip from Hong Kong to Guangzhou? I'd love to find a guide or tour that starts and returns to Hong Kong, not one where you have to get yourself to Guangzhou. Any suggestions or experiences?

 

I saw that you are arriving on Regent Voyager from your post on another board. Does Regent offer a one-day tour? We are arriving in mid-February on Crystal Symphony. Crystal offers a 13-hour shorex r/t Hong Kong. Perhaps Regent offers a similar excursion.

 

This is the link to Crystal's shorex to Guangzhou for comparison.

https://www.crystalcruises.com/voyage/guam-to-hong-kong-ocs200202-13?content=%2Ftour%2Fexcursion%2Fhong-kong%2Fguangzhou-by-bullet-train%2F10033153%3Fvoyageid%3Docs200202-13&scrollto=excursions-7-container#shore-excursions

 

[John Bull]

We took a group-visa-included tour  to Guangzhou from our post-cruise HK hotel and we booked thro Viator.

We don't normally use an intermediary, but because of the group visa one has to register & pay with booking regardless of who you book with. We booked with Viator because they were a known and reputable organisation & we didn't know the local operators. 

Can't fault Viator - they texted us a reminder and a further reminder by phone to our hotel room.

 

All went smoothly, I don't recall the timings or precise itinerary, but something like ............

around 8am collected from our hotel by van & taken to the catamaran ferry which sailed us up the Pearl River to the restricted special economic area of "Red" China's Shenzen. It has its own border with both HK and China proper, only those working in the area or visiting on business have unrestricted access, & their family must apply for permission to visit. Here we boarded a coach & visited a school, a museum (with a terracotta warrior, I don't recall if it was an original or a coy) and a couple of bored-looking pandas.

Then through the second border (only driver & guide had to show passports there) for the drive to Guangzhou.

 

I had done the self-same tour about ten years earlier - the drive to Guangzhou was through paddy-fields tended by coolies in their dark blue clothes & wide-brimmed straw hats. And when we walked up the street from coach to restaurant, the big  attention was ......... us !! We were the first outsiders that many of the folk had seen. And a vacationing very tall bearded Afro-American marine in our party was of particular amusement

 

This second time was a shock!

The paddy-fields were gone, instead the road was lined with wall-to-wall factories, there was an almost-endless traffic-jam on the road, and the air was very heavily polluted.

Westerners (and probably even tall bearded Afro-Americans) are now a fairly common sight. 

There was little of Guangzhou's old quarter that I'd remembered, in the main it was just another modern Oriental city..

I don't recall the places that we visited other than the restaurant for an excellent lunch and the final stop at the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall (SYS was a much-revered philosopher & politician, the first President of China).

We returned to HK on the very fast & comfortable high-speed train. We didn't see much from the train because the night was closing in, and we got back to Kowloon station mid-evening. Vans were available but our hotel was close-at-hand. 

 

This is a cheap and easy way to visit China.

But although still worthwhile nowadays it won't be as pleasurable as it used to be, though that's no fault of the tour operator.

For the very best experience of this trip you really need a guide with the name of Doctor Who or Emmet Brown or Marty McFly 

 

https://www.viator.com/en-GB/tours/Hong-Kong-SAR/Guangzhou-Canton-China-Day-Trip-from-Hong-Kong/d35959-3675GE

(looks very much like it did when we went, tho prices are higher - and beware the prices may show in GBP.)

 

Because of the included visa you need to book at least 48 hours ahead. 

You'll need your passports for this trip

 

JB 

 

Edited November 10, 2019 by John Bull