Awesome shops. The people were so friendly. A great place to just walk around. A pretty quiet area, even though there was construction on 'The White Swan Hotel'.

Shamian island is what it is advertised to be, you can state our experience as brief as that. Quiet, little traffic, charming, many restaurants, enchanting views of the river, beautifully maintained parks, little cafes in the park areas, all contained within a small area where you can't get lost. For people who want to be really in intense contact with... More

Perhaps it was because I was there at night and it was pretty deserted, but I wasn't as whelmed with Shamian as I was hoping. I'll give it a go during the day time. The architecture is old style, which is a nice contrast to much of Guangzhou - so that was cool.

We came here on an early morning when it wasn't so crowded (highly recommended!) and enjoyed walking through the beautiful green spaces, courtyards, colonial-style buildings, statues, etc. We were able to grab a nice dim sum breakfast in one of the restaurants in the island, overlooking the water. Beautiful! Recommendation: Try to read about the history of this place before... More

Enjoy a wonderful cup of coffee (8 RMB) & a pastry(8-12 RMB) at Victoria Hotel, if you are on a tight budget -- C'est La Vie Bakery is the cheapest in Shamian.... Always, always take cool pictures among beautiful, last century buildings of French, English, American, and Polish consulates... whatever you do, don't miss the back-drop of Chairman Mao's 1st... More

Still interesting to walk around but the ICON is now a multi story concrete shell ' under construction'. The cruise down the river at night is still pretty special and not to be missed.

Go there for walking a the evening time. Streets looks nice and you take here a dinner or do some small shopping. You will see plenty of just married couples with photographers, seems to be famous place for the wedding photos. A bit of an old European style in the heart of the Guangzhou City.

near to the fish market and Chinese medicine market , you can see the European style in GuangZhou here, take a picture, and seat to some cafe

This used to be the place where Americans came to pick orphans from. They would stay at the Swan hotel and the Embassy was close by. The embassy moved and so did the pickup point for orphans. This place has a mix of Chines and Western bronze statues scattered throughout all the parks. Unfortuantely a lot of the tourist shops... More