Trip to Zhuhai, Guangzhou, and Macau (2024-09)

2025-12-14

In September 2024, Joanne and I went to China! We went to Zhuhai, Guangzhou, and Macao. This is the sequel to trip to Japan and Hong Kong. I was going to publish this blog post at the same time as that one, but due to extreme procrastination, here we are over a year later!

We took the bus from Hong Kong to Zhuhai via the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge.

The Jinwan Arts Center in the Jinwan district of Zhuhai.

1 Saturday 2024-09-14: Arriving in Zhuhai

We arrived in Zhuhai in the afternoon. The first thing to do was to set up our cellular service. The signal in the parking lot was really bad and all the public wifi was unusable because literally every wifi hotspot requires you to have a +86 phone number in order to access it. Stringent laws in China require internet access to be tied to your real identity.

Welcome sign upon exiting the Zhuhai terminus of the HZBM.

It was a long drive from the bridge terminus to our apartment, located in the Doumen suburbs.

Cabinet of stuff at my mother in law's house. — Cabinet of stuff at my mother in law’s house.

Home-cooked fish and chicken drumsticks and takeout roast pork belly.

2 Sunday 2024-09-15: Food and shopping

Upon waking up, we had a quick breakfast at home of takeout cheung fun (腸粉).

Then we went to get lunch with some friends! Oops, we accidentally went to the wrong restaurant. This one is empty because I think they haven’t opened yet, but it looks really cool without anyone in it, so I snapped a pic.

The actual restaurant we went to had a rather average offering of dim sum, sour vegetable fish (酸菜鱼), and other dishes that I won’t bore you with. After lunch, we wanted to get coffee. But the coffee shop we went to was entirely reserved by a famous celebrity! So we couldn’t get coffee. We were very sad and did not even get an autograph.

Then we went to sightsee at Beishancun (北山村, lit. North Mountain Village). The village comprises a lot of charming old-school buildings and various restaurants and tea shops serving delicious food. To save money, we took the public bus there.

View from the bus when crossing a bridge.

A charming table and stools in one of the old buildings in Beishancun.

A Weiqi (also known as Go) club in Beishancun.

Then we got dessert!

In the afternoon, we went shopping. We went to the Huafa mall, an awesome and huge mall!

The most puzzling thing is that the mall atrium is very exposed to the outside. Yet, they have air conditioning and they keep pumping cold air in. It doesn’t work very well, since all the cold air escapes through the vast opening, and the mall remains hot and humid in Zhuhai’s tropical climate. Still, who needs actual cool air when you can simply look cool?

Exterior of the mall. As far as I know, neither this mall nor Zhuhai has anything to do with the Olympics and I have no idea how they got the rights to use those five rings.

For dinner, we ate Vietnamese food (sorry, no pics) and then went home.

3 Monday 2024-09-16: Wetlands, haircut, and Jinwan Arts Center.

First things first, we got a delicious cheung fun (腸粉) a few minutes walk in the neighborhood of our apartment. The tasty cheung fun are super thin and wrinkly and soak up all the delicious special soy sauce. In contrast, the ones we get in the US are often too smooth and thick.

Hole-in-the-wall establishment featuring stone-milled cheung fun. — Hole-in-the-wall establishment featuring stone-milled *cheung fun*.

After chilling for a while in the morning, and buying a tube of toothpaste, we went for a hike in the Huangyang river wetlands reserve!

An observation deck in the wetlands park. There's a cool white bird on the left. — An observation deck in the wetlands park. There’s a cool white bird on the left.

Then it was time for a haircut!

A really high quality haircut in this extremely fancy salon, plus hair washing and impeccable service, cost a mere fraction of the cheapest Supercuts haircut that you can find in the US.

We got dinner with Joanne’s cousins. The food was mediocre. The restaurant was full of cigarette smoke, which made me extremely annoyed because Joanne was pregnant. We ordered a morel soup, which, to our dismay, arrived with a single, solitary morel mushroom on top. This “crab island” was quite creatively plated, however.

3.1 Jinwan Arts Center

I saw this cool Zaha Hadid building on social media and decided to check it out after dinner. I was expecting a serene building, but what I found was a bustling night festival full of people. Kids were running all over the place with nets trying to catch shrimp in the water surrounding the venue. A bunch of people were waving multicolored LED lights around at night.

Still, after the crowds subsided at 10 pm, I managed to get a few good shots in.

This lady was video chatting on her phone.

4 Tuesday, 2024-09-17: Rest day and Mid Autumn Festival

We decided to get cheung fun again in the morning, but at a different shop.

For lunch, we ate a simple lunch of homemade wontons. In the afternoon, Joanne’s cousins came over to celebrate Mid Autumn Festival!

My mother in law cooked a dazzling array of home-cooked foods, including:

Steamed clams
Steamed crabs
Steamed fish
Steamed prawns
Roast poultry
Meat
Stir fried wood ear mushroom and shrimp
Bitter melon soup with pork
Cucumber salad

After dinner, I complained that we hadn’t gone out much during the day, so Joanne took pity and we went to take photos of a viral LED-encrusted meme photo spot, called the Zexing food center (泽兴美食城).

5 Wednesday, 2024-09-18: Trip to Guangzhou

We took a ride share to the Zhuhai train station and caught an intercity train to Guangzhou.

Military recruits (the sash they are wearing says "glorious enlistment"). — Military recruits (the sash they are wearing says “glorious enlistment”).

The platforms are empty because you are not allowed to go up to the platform until a few minutes before your train's departure. Until then, you have to wait in the waiting area downstairs, which is vast and contains tons of seats. — The platforms are empty because you are not allowed to go up to the platform until a few minutes before your train’s departure. Until then, you have to wait in the waiting area downstairs, which is vast and contains tons of seats.

The CRH-6A rolling stock was really nice and quiet as it zipped through the country at 200 km/h. Over 95% of the line is elevated on viaducts and is completely grade separated.

We passed by a lot of fisheries raising “crispy meat grass fish” (脆肉鲩), a specialty of the region. This fish is the same species as the regular grass fish, but it is raised on a high-protein diet of beans, so it develops firm flesh that remains firm even after fully cooking. When you slice up this fish into thin slices and eat it in hot pot, it’s really good with a unique texture. It is quite an interesting juxtaposition to see these fisheries nestled amongst high rise buildings.

Soon, we arrived at the Guangzhou South Station, one of the biggest railway stations (it was the biggest in Asia when it opened in 2010).

Police buggies in Guangzhou South Station.

An LED panel displays a political slogan about how Xi Jinping Thought ushers in the new era of Communism with Chinese Characteristics.

Joanne’s friend came to pick us up and we headed straight into the city! We went for a bougie lunch at Guangzhou Jiujia, a famous restaurant since 1935. Guangzhou is the center of Canton and has, by definition, the most authentic Cantonese food. Cantonese food is known for its white cut chicken and roast meats, so we ordered those. It did not disappoint. The white cut chicken was the most delicious chicken I have ever eaten — incredibly flavorful and with a surprisingly firm texture.

Roast pork and sausage stuffed with salted egg yolk.

5.1 Liwanhu

Then we went to the Liwanhu Park (荔湾湖). It has a nice lake with a bunch of cool old buildings next to it. Very fun to walk down the old alleys.

5.2 Chenjiaci

After the lake, we went to Chen clan academy (Chenjiaci, 陈家祠). It is the humble abode of a prominent clan. The buildings are really cool but I had a hard time getting good photos due to the large number of people and very harsh sunlight.

In the afternoon, we checked into our hotel. It was so cheap, but amazingly clean and modern!

For dinner, we went to Chaofa, a beef hot pot restaurant. They specialize in Chaoshan beef hot pot (潮汕牛肉火鍋), where extremely fresh slices of beef are dunked in a clear beef broth. This maximizes the tasty beef flavor without overpowering it with spices and seasoning.

Whimsical architecture and Mid Autumn Festival moon outside the Chaofa restaurant.

5.3 Canton Tower

At night, our friend took us to Canton Tower, a hyperboloid of one sheet that is one of the tallest buildings in the world at 604 m.

Canton Tower is entirely covered in colorful LED lights. Most annoyingly, it often plays advertisements. So I had to wait until each ad is over to take photos when it is displaying a more or less aesthetic color scheme.

It's playing an advertisement lol. — It’s playing an advertisement lol.

There is a full(ish) moon since it’s the day after Mid Autumn Festival, but due to cloudy weather and the fact that I didn’t bring a super long lens, I didn’t get any good shots of the “eye of Sauron” type photo where a giant moon is placed right on top of the tower.

6 Thursday, 2024-09-19: Line scan photography and back to Zhuhai

In the morning, we ate the complimentary hotel breakfast. It was actually pretty good, and included many classical Cantonese dishes like congee, noodles, curry fishballs, tea eggs, siu mai, and so on.

Then, I went to do line scan photography!

One of the cars of a Lanzhou--Guangzhou "green-skinned" train (绿皮车). Lanzhou is really, really far away (about 2300 km), so this train has come a long way! — One of the cars of a Lanzhou–Guangzhou “green-skinned” train (绿皮车). Lanzhou is really, really far away (about 2300 km), so this train has come a long way!

Railway tracks where I did the line scan photography.

I also had a little bit of time to just walk around and explore.

I chanced upon this electronics bazaar. It was past closing time for them though.

A random hotel, not the one we stayed at.

Then, we ate chicken rice for lunch and went back to Zhuhai. To be honest this chicken rice was even tastier than the one we had in Hong Kong and was also a lot cheaper (delivered)!

Takeout chicken rice. Super cheap, super delicious.

6.1 Back in Zhuhai

Back in Zhuhai, we went to a mall called UT Place.

Interior of a Luxeed S7, a luxury electric car.

Wet market across the street from the mall. This lady came up to me angrily demanding to know why I took a picture but I told her I was a tourist (she was very sceptical).

For dinner, we ate barbecue meat at a restaurant called Xita Laotaitai (west tower old lady).

7 Friday, 2024-09-20: Doumen neighbourhood hanging out

On this day we just kinda hung out near our apartment. We had to take care of some errands.

On this day, I used my Voigtlander Ultron 35mm f/1.7 VM, so you can enjoy these unprocessed, imperfect vintage-look photos full of vignetting and soft corners!

8 Saturday, 2024-09-21: Going to Macao

We went to Macao. It was pouring.

Fortunately, the weather cleared up upon our arrival. I looked outside the balcony and lo and behold, a Lamborghini Aventador, just casually hiding amongst a bunch of relatively cheap cars!