Finally returned to Guangzhou

This is not my first time to Guangzhou.

In fact, my first job after college was in Guangzhou. However, due to various reasons, I only stayed in Yangcheng for half a month before I quickly fled back to Chengdu. So I really don't have much specific impression of Guangzhou. I kept talking about wanting to visit Guangzhou again, but I didn't expect the reunion would be so many years later.

This year, I was trapped at home for too long due to special reasons, and I had long been thinking about where to travel. On a whim, I searched the ticket and found that the round-trip ticket to Guangzhou was only over 500, so I decisively arranged a trip to Guangzhou.

Originally, I planned to take beautiful photos of various check-in landmarks and eat delicious food while I was at it, but I didn't expect that there were not many beautiful photos taken during the five-day torrential rain, but the delicious food was enough to support the wall. My trip to Guangzhou simply became a complete gourmet journey.

The first travel article of the year is for my just-concluded trip to Guangzhou during the plum rainy season!

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Photo equipment: Sony a7m3+ Tamron 28-75mm F2.8

All photos are original, please do not reprint.

Dexian loves to drink tea

Maybe there is no place in China where people know better about enjoying the beauty of a morning than Cantonese people. A large part of this enjoyment comes from morning tea culture.

Although it is morning tea, Guangzhou's morning tea is not as simple as a pot of tea tables and snacks. It has long covered all aspects. Meat and vegetarian, salty and sweet, dry and wet, all kinds of snacks, small dishes and flour porridge make people unable to start. Therefore, if you come to Guangzhou and don't have time to forage everywhere and go to a traditional teahouse for morning tea, you will be deeply impressed by Guangdong's food culture.

Cantonese people love to say "drinking tea when you have time", which means drinking tea when you have time. In fact, in many places in China, people are used to gathering with friends in three or five times when they are free, ordering a pot of tea, and enjoying a rare leisure time., and Cantonese people take this "leisure and ease" to the extreme.

During this trip to Guangzhou, I wanted to have an authentic morning tea, but I ordered too much and turned the morning tea into lunch ~

In Guangzhou, there are countless traditional time-honored teahouses. Lianxiang Tower, Taotao Ju, Nanyuan, Beiyuan, Banxi Restaurant... are all restaurants that have been old for decades or even hundreds of years. Of course, there are also some popular new shops like Dude. You can't go wrong looking for any one.

Among all the refreshments, my favorite is steamed chicken feet in black bean sauce. The soft and waxy chicken feet melt immediately in the mouth, so you must order morning tea.

This crispy baked sweet potato is also very delicious. The skin is crispy, and the filling is full of sweet and soft mashed sweet potatoes. Fortunately, there should be no extra sugar added. The sweet potatoes are moderate and won't feel too greasy.

Good taste of beef tripe radish in sauce. The beef tripe is thick and chewy, and the radish is soft and delicious.

Taste the money belly, which is a bit similar to the dish above, but it is also very delicious. I thought that Rewei was the name of a taste, but after checking, I realized that Rewei was just an adjective and could be understood as delicious. So Haowei Sauce beef tripe also means the same?

Stir-fried radish cake with XO sauce is also good. The first time I ate radish cake was in Taiwan. I was surprised that this traditional cake didn't taste like radish very well. It tasted very soft and waxy.

The quicksand milk yellow pig bun is cute in shape and has a strong milky aroma, but it is a little sweet for me, so the taste is good, but it can be ignored.

Baked glutinous rice chicken with Kazhen cheese, this is really delicious! Highly recommended. I have eaten glutinous rice chicken, but this is the first time I have seen it wrapped in a thick layer of cheese. The cheese tastes salty and sweet, and the glutinous rice chicken itself is also full of aroma. It is a representative of the innovative morning tea that combines Chinese and Western medicine. Because it is full of glutinous rice, in fact, after ordering this dish, you don't need to order the staple food. (This is also the reason why we are so satisfied that we must learn lessons next time)

Fresh Huaishan mussel and salty bone porridge. People may not understand the name. Simply put, it is porridge made of Huaishan (yam), mussel (not a vegetable, but dried mussels) and salty bone (pig bones). The light salty taste is delicious, but I can't drink it after ordering too much.

I also found another interesting thing while eating morning tea, which is the menu of morning tea in Guangzhou.

Morning tea is not a single price, but is divided into small, medium, large, special, top, super, refined and other grades based on the price of ingredients and the difficulty of processing. The price of refreshments for each grade is different. For example, the small points in Taotao Ju are 13 yuan per serving, while the highest-level tea snacks cost 48 yuan per serving, so it is normal for each person to be over 100 yuan per person.

Yutao Taoju Restaurant (Xita Guojin Store)

Address: 5th Floor, Guojin Tiandi, No. 5 Zhujiang West

Transportation: 180 meters walk from the entrance and exit of Zhujiang New City Station

Cantonese food is also common

In my narrow understanding of food, Cantonese food seems to be synonymous with high-quality food. It wasn't until I actually came to Guangzhou this time that I realized that, like Sichuan cuisine, Cantonese food with a long culture can actually be very common. Xiangqun Restaurant is definitely one of the most popular and well-established Cantonese restaurants. Only after eating can you understand the inscription in the store,"Ordinary people, simple and unpretentious" is indeed very appropriate.

This trip to Guangzhou saw too many dilapidated and cramped old restaurants, and the dining environment of Xiangqun Restaurant is undoubtedly above average. We went for dinner early at five o'clock. There were not many people. An hour later, the store was almost full, which was enough to show its popularity.

Because there were only two of them, and they had been eating and eating all day, their eyes were big and their stomach was small. The two of them ordered four dishes.

The first dish is the signature chicken with scallion oil. In fact, I struggled for five seconds before ordering. Should I order chicken with scallion oil or white cut chicken? Hainan's Wenchang chicken is really unforgettable for me. I guess it will be difficult to surpass Guangzhou's chicken. I might as well order scallion oil chicken and try it.

Soon, the chicken with scallion oil was served. The messy green onion segments almost covered up the chicken. The casual presentation revealed a rough civilian temperament.

Pick up a piece of chicken and put it in your mouth. The aroma of scallion oil overflows. The chicken is tender, smooth and refreshing, and it is indeed delicious. The only regret is that it would be better if the seasoning was lighter.

Because I didn't go specifically to Chen Tianji to eat fish skin, I simply ordered a fish skin to try this time. I thought it would have a different taste from the fish skin I had eaten, but in fact it was still the same taste and taste. It was indeed very common., just crisp, but not what I like.

People change, such as tastes. I used to not eat cabbage at all, and I always felt that it had a strange taste, but I don't know when I actually fell in love with this dish. This raw stir-fried cabbage dish from his house suits my appetite very much. It tastes crispy, sweet and without dregs, because it uses lard dregs and has a strong fat aroma. Highly recommended.

The last dish served was pork offal gel pot. "Jee-hee" is the pronunciation of "zizi" in Cantonese, which means the sizzling sound of ingredients in iron plates or casseroles due to high temperatures. In my opinion, it can be understood as similar to teppanyaki or dry pot.

This pork mixed pot has rich ingredients. Unfortunately, I don't like pork liver very much, but the pork intestines taste very good, with soft and tender taste and no peculiar smell. Compared with pork offal pot, I personally feel that beef offal pot is more delicious.

Overall, his dishes tasted good and the prices were very friendly to the people. We ordered four dishes, including meat and vegetarian dishes, but in the end, they were less than 100 yuan per person. It's just that as many people have commented, his dishes are a little salty overall. They don't feel it at first, but the more salty they become as they eat it.

By the way, although Xiangqun Hotel is not a tea house, there is actually a tea table fee here, which is 4 yuan per person. There are different types of teas to choose from. Fortunately, there was fragrant tea to drink. While we were eating, it rained heavily outside, so we ate slowly, drank tea and chatted slowly, and ate digestion and waited for the rain. The last dinner in Guangzhou was satisfying.

Xiangxiangqun Hotel (Longjin Road Main Store)

Address: No. 853-857, Longjin East Road

Transportation: 750 meters walk from Exit A of Ximenkou Station

Deadly ecstasy meal

For me, the earliest memory of Guangdong cuisine comes from the "Distraction Meal" in "The God of Cookery".

I was still young at that time, and I always felt that this was just the usual "pompous" effect of Xing Ye's movies. How delicious could a bowl of rice be?

But when I first tasted pot rice, I was sure it might be my favorite meal. So when we arrived in Guangzhou, how could there be so little pot rice on the delicious food list?

Time was limited this time, and I only ate two families of pot rice. The first one is Chaoji, which specializes in making pot rice.

His family has a wide variety of pot rice, and he doesn't know what to eat. As a Sichuanese, eel is my favorite food since I was a child, but since I lived in the north, eel has tasted worse. So when I saw eel pot rice, although it was expensive (27 yuan), I did not hesitate to order it! Facts have proved that I was right, delicious! The eel meat is tender (but has thorns) and the rice is dry and delicious. The last crispy rice was not burnt, and the heat was controlled just right and it was very fragrant.

Choose whether to add eggs and or salted fish when ordering. It doesn't matter whether you add salted fish or not, but you definitely need to add eggs! The so-called nest egg is actually a half-cooked poached egg, which is best eaten together with rice.

In addition, don't forget to put soy sauce in the pot rice. Soy sauce can be understood as a type of soy sauce. Although it looks similar to the soy sauce we usually eat, each family has its own secret recipe for mixing. Authentic pot rice must be added with soy sauce.

Zaochao ji pot rice

Address: No. 188 Zhuguang Road (next to Beijing Tower)

Transportation: 84 meters from Exit A of Beijing Road Subway Station

The second time I ate pot rice was at the famous "Senji Snack Shop." This time, I ordered a portion of roasted pork pot rice. It was normal and had no special impression. After eating it twice, I wanted to take a photo. Although I also like to eat oilwheat vegetables, the heart of vegetables is more suitable in pot rice.

Yansenji Snack Store

Yesenji Snack Shop (Tongfu Middle Road Store)

Address: No. 2 Baoyu Zhi Street, Tongfu Middle Road

Transportation: 670 meters walk from Exit D of Shiergong Station

Give me a bowl of porridge and noodles

In addition to pot rice, Guangzhou's porridge and noodles are also ordinary delicacy that can be seen everywhere. Although it was mentioned earlier that you can eat these in tea houses, in fact, if you want to eat more authentic porridge and noodles, you must go to the old street to search for them.

Congee can be eaten in any city in the country, but perhaps only in Guangzhou can you eat so many varieties. For example, there are more than 20 kinds of porridge available for the well-known Xiongji Chicken Congee.

Congee in Guangzhou is different from other places, it is called Shengrolling Congee. The so-called raw rolling means adding fresh ingredients to the boiling porridge, and "rolling" it once and immediately serving it out of the pot to preserve the delicious flavor of the ingredients to the greatest extent possible.

Among all the congee, boat congee must not be missed. Boat means small boat. It was born in a floating family on the Pearl River. It got its name because it sold and delivered porridge on the boat.

Boat porridge has many ingredients, including sashimi, lean meat, fried dough sticks, peanuts, chopped green onion, shredded eggs, squid, etc. It is rich in nutrients. When you bring a bowl in the morning, all taste buds will be opened up by this complex taste.

Xiong Xiong Ji Chicken Congee (Tongfu Middle Road Store)

Address: No. 416 Tongfu Middle Road (near the city of Honghui Hospital Station)

Transportation: 810 meters walk from Exit D of Shiergong Station

During the half month when I came to Guangzhou after graduating from college, the food I ate the most was rice rolls. Therefore, the first meal during my long-awaited trip to Guangzhou was a bowl of rice rolls. Rice rolls are so popular that they must be found in almost street restaurants. It can be said to be the number one national delicacy in Guangzhou. Because I went to Chenjiaci for my first stop, I chose Fangji Snack Shop on Xihua Road nearby.

Fangji's store is very small, so you can only sit at three or five tables. In fact, it would be a little strange at first why such a famous traditional old store didn't expand its appearance and its service attitude was indifferent. After eating in Guangzhou for a few days, I finally realized that most of these old stores are repeat customers, and many of them are even old diners who have been here for decades. The store is no longer busy every day and has no time or need to improve its service quality. Even in the Internet age, foreign tourists flock to the store, it is no different for them. They are never repeat customers. There are many factors that do not expand stores. A larger store means greater risks, and it may even be rejected and "changed" by old diners. Therefore, instead of taking risks and changing, it is better to stick to it. I just don't know how long this persistence can last?

Fangji focuses on traditional Bula sausages. The so-called Bula sausages are rice noodles made by steaming flour paste on a cloth. This is a quite traditional method. Nowadays, most rice noodles are made with more convenient and efficient drawer steamers.

I ordered a portion of mandarin duck sausage. The so-called mandarin duck sausage is a mixture of beef and pork. The sausage flour has a delicate and smooth taste, and the meat is also very tender, but the taste of the soy sauce is a little too sweet and a little greasy for me.

Yufangji Snack Store

Address: No. 280 Xihua Road (opposite No. 82 Middle School)

Transportation: 810 meters walk from Exit C of Chenjiaci Station

After eating rice rolls, I wandered to Zhenzhen Snack Shop on the same street. A bowl of his sirloin rice noodles came.

Compared with Fangji, although they are both called "snack shops", Zhenzhen's store is much more spacious and tidy. But perhaps it was because there were too many diners, so his family adopted a buffet to pick up meals. And there is no tissue (it seems that many stores in Guangzhou do this...), so that I don't like to take tissue out, I haven't wiped my mouth all day ~

Except for eating beef noodles in Taiwan, I haven't eaten such authentic noodles for a long time. The taste is relatively light, but the advantage is that the ingredients are sufficient, so it is delicious.

Yuzhenzhen Snack Store

Address: No. 183 Xihua Road (near Rainbow Theater)

Transportation: 1.1 kilometers walk from Exit C of Xichang Station

Life needs sweetness

As long as the history of food is, the history of desserts is as long as the history of food is.

If there are other cities that can compete with Guangzhou in the hegemony of Chinese food, then desserts are definitely an invincible trump card in Guangzhou.

In Guangzhou, all kinds of traditional desserts can be eaten without being identical for a month. This time, we chose two very popular dessert shops, Baihua Dessert and Fragrant Dessert.

The first thing I went to was Baihua Dessert Shop. As soon as we arrived at the store, the first thing that came to our eyes was the dazzling menu (there were hundreds of varieties by visual inspection)

The small store is full of unique and attitute word aesthetics (did you suddenly think of the packaging of a certain coconut milk?) The round table for dining is also divided into four areas with cardboard, which is really full of personality.

I didn't know what to order, but most of them were things I had never eaten, so I simply ordered the desserts I was familiar with to have a comparison, so I ordered turtle jelly and coconut milk double skin milk.

Coconut milk is added to double skin milk, and the taste is strong and smooth. As a coconut control, I can't stop it. The turtle jelly will feel slightly bitter when you eat it first, and the sugar water below will turn sweet. I personally like this way of eating it very much. It is better than mixing it evenly at the beginning.

Yubaihua Dessert Store

Address: No. 210 Wenming Road (near Sun Yat-sen Library)

Transportation: 450 meters walk from Exit A of the Agricultural Lecture Institute

Compared with Baihua, Fragrance has a little less "personality". Although it is called a "dessert", his house actually has everything. It can be regarded as a tea restaurant. I ordered a portion of poplar branch nectar in the fragrance. The sweetness was moderate. The grapefruit taste was strong, but the mango taste was slightly lighter. It can only be said that it was not bad.

Fenfang Dessert (Tongfu Road Store)

Address: No. 619, Tongfu East Road (opposite Shiergong)

Transportation: 230 meters walk from Exit D of Shiergong Station

Literature and Art Coffee Shop

In Guangzhou, everyone must have heard the saying "Young Master Dongshan, Miss Xiguan". "The right to live in Dongshan, but the money to live in Xiguan" is a true portrayal of Guangdong during the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China. Dongshan was once a gathering place for high-ranking officials and dignitaries, with many gorgeous and sophisticated Western-style buildings. Today, Dongshan still retains its tranquility and elegance, becoming the most literary and artistic area in Guangzhou.

In Dongshan, a place of literature and art, there are naturally various literary and art shops, and among them coffee shops are the most popular.

Due to limited time, I hurriedly searched two coffee shops on the Internet and decided to visit with a friend I hadn't seen for a long time.

The first one is an inception cafe hidden in a residential building. The store's storefront is small, but it is very warmly decorated and has a European classical style.

The entire space is filled with all kinds of interesting little objects.

The two of us ordered the signature Dirty Mocha and White Dirty Mocha, plus a lemon cheesecake.

Dirty Mocha is very creative and has a casual and messy aesthetic feeling.

The white dirty mocha removes the cocoa powder and adds a fresh look.

The lemon cheesecake is a bit tough. It is 45 yuan per serving. It is only the size of an ordinary can bottle lid (as shown in the picture, it is only a little larger than a normal lemon slice). I am used to eating heavy cheesecake, but the taste of this light cheesecake is still not dense enough. Soft, with the advantage of being very delicate and having a good taste of raspberry sauce.

⭐inception cafe

Address: No. 5, Junyi Road

Transportation: 520 meters walk from the entrance and exit of Dongshankou Station

After coming out of the store, we decided to go to another coffee shop, and another very personalized Jitsu Coffee Company was nearby.

This style focuses on American retro, and various green elements are very fresh and lively.

I ordered his dirty, and my friend ordered mocha. The name dirty is a bit unclear. The first taste is ordinary black coffee, and the second taste is the taste of latte when it is slightly bitter. The taste is quite rich.

Urgent Foot Coffee Company

Address: No. 48-13 Miaoqian West Street

Transportation: 510 meters walk from the entrance and exit of Dongshankou Station

Ancient temple Yongliufang

Although the theme of the entire trip was delicious food, we actually went to the places when it didn't rain.

Chenjiaci was the first stop on my trip to Guangzhou. It was rare to be sunny that day, and the following days were rainy and rainy.

The ancestral temple culture has a long history and is a symbol of my country's Confucian traditional culture, and the Chenjia Temple is one of its representatives.

The Chenjia Temple, also known as the Chen Academy, was built during the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty. It is a joint temple of the Chen clans across Guangdong. It is the largest and best preserved traditional Lingnan ancestral hall building in existence. It is also one of the new "Eight Scenes of Yangcheng" and is known as "a Pearl of Lingnan Art Architecture".

Today, with the rapid development of the city, it is rare for the downtown area to have such a large area of ancient buildings and be preserved so well.

Entering the ancestral hall, the first thing that comes into view is two painted door gods 4 meters tall. The red-faced one is Qin Qiong and the black-faced one is Yuchi Gong. They are very majestic.

The Chenjia Temple faces south and consists of 9 halls, 6 courtyards, 10 wing rooms and corridors and alleys, with a building area of 8000 square meters. Walking through the spacious and gorgeous ancestral hall, it is easy to panic and feel like you have walked into a movie set.

What attracts me most in the entire ancestral hall is the sculpture art that can be seen everywhere. In particular, the pottery sculptures all over the eaves are based on folklore. They are colorful, vivid, and have a strong Lingnan architectural style.

In addition to painting and pottery sculptures, various traditional artistic techniques such as wood carving, stone carving, and brick carving can be seen in the Chenjia Temple. It is no wonder that it is called the "Guangdong Folk Arts and Crafts Museum".

Lingnan Architecture

Guangzhou, a city with rich cultural heritage, has never lacked museums. This trip to Guangzhou was limited in time. Apart from the Chen Family Temple, the only museum I visited was the Guangzhou Art Museum.

The predecessor of the Guangzhou Art Museum was the Guangzhou Art Museum. It is located on the bank of the Luhu Lake with a beautiful environment and has a small but beautiful fresh temperament. The overall style has the characteristics of traditional Lingnan architecture, and the unique spatial structure fully demonstrates the beauty of the architecture. The collections therein are also numerous and diverse, and many art exhibitions are held from time to time.

The visit coincided with Qi Baishi's painting exhibition. It was the first time to see the original works of this master so close. It was indeed a pleasure to the eye. The leisurely and comfortable state of mind between the strokes is evident on the paper, and when you look closely, the vivid and creative expression technique is even more exquisite.

Centenary Shicuizhou

Shamian is the first place that is very popular in Guangzhou. It is home to Guangzhou's most exotic buildings. Even McDonald's has been dubbed "the most beautiful in Guangzhou", attracting young people to rush to check in.

Shamian is actually a sandbar formed by alluvial deposits from the Pearl River. It once had a better name called "Shicui Island". As early as the Song Dynasty, it became a major transportation route and tourist attraction at home and abroad. After the Opium War, it became the Anglo-French Concession. Therefore, although it covers an area of only 0.3 square kilometers, it has more than 150 European buildings of various types, including banks, post offices, hospitals, hotels, consulates, churches, etc., and the architectural styles also include various styles such as Neo-Barroque, pseudo-Gothic, coupon gallery, and neoclassical.

Strolling on the sandy streets, neat roads, and ancient trees covering the sky, this is a rare quiet oasis in the city. Because of its many unique exotic buildings, this is not only a must-visit for tourists to Guangzhou, but also a good choice for many local people in Guangzhou to take wedding photos.

Personally, I think this Starbucks is more beautiful than McDonald's.

Years in the Old City

The charm of a city is not just food and attractions, but the "atmosphere of life" that is integrated into the ordinary.

When I went to Haikou before, the fireworks scene of the old streets of the Qilou and the living conditions of the people who lived there were the most attractive things to me.

Compared with Haikou, Guangzhou has more arcade buildings and more diverse styles. During the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, it was advocated by Zhang Zhidong, governor of Guangdong and Guangxi. After decades, a 40-kilometer-long arcade was built. Today, arcade buildings can be seen everywhere in Guangzhou's Laocheng District and are still an indispensable part of the city.

Enning Road, built in 1931, is one of them. It has strong Xiguan characteristics and is known as "the most beautiful old street in Guangzhou." There are not only well-preserved arcade buildings on this street, but also cultural relics and historic sites including Bruce Lee's former residence and the Bahe Guild Hall.

"Golden Sound Cinema" is a large theater that opened in 1934. At that time, it mainly showed American films and was one of the symbols of the prosperity of Enning Road during the Republic of China. After the vicissitudes of time, now only an archway with signs written here is left empty. For people to imagine the scene at that time.

The styles of Guangzhou's arcade buildings are changeable, but the Aiqun Hotel built in 1937 is a completely different style. This once tallest building in Guangzhou is designed in a pseudo-Gothic style and is full of momentum, making people feel as if they are in the streets of Europe and America. It is also one of the favorite shooting scenes of many photographers.

It is a pleasant thing to stroll through the old streets every day in the Laocheng District, see the life of the local people, and explore the hidden food among them.

The Sacred Heart Cathedral in the Stone Room was originally a place I really wanted to visit, but it was closed for a long time due to the epidemic, so I can only come back next time.

"Flanking hair" is a traditional beauty technique that I didn't expect to be lucky enough to see on the streets of Guangzhou.

Unfortunately, the time was short and the rain continued, so the exploration of Guangzhou's old streets could only wait until next time.

Trip and strategy

👉Itinary

Because it rained every day, I actually went to very few places this time. Most of the time I just ate and ate.

👉Transportation

In Guangzhou, the subway is the best way to travel. Major attractions and delicious food locations can be directly connected to the subway. You can download the Guangzhou Metro APP in advance or use Alipay WeChat to directly scan the code on your mobile phone. In addition, for short distances, shared bicycles that can be seen everywhere are also a good choice.

👉Food

There are too many delicious food in Guangzhou that I can't eat it at all (I went to eat Salia for a change one day, but I didn't expect that they were all locals). In addition to the ones listed above, there are also tea restaurants and Chaoshan Beef Hotpot that haven't been mentioned. In addition, the KTV in Guangzhou is so cool, and I love the three-hour singing plus buffet model.

👉Accommodation

Guangzhou has a wide range of accommodation options and is frugal. This time, I stayed at Evergrande Hotel in Guangzhou. The hotel environment is quiet, and this season, a five-star hotel for less than 500 yuan per night is very cost-effective. The rooms are spacious enough, especially the oversized gym and the national standard heated swimming pool, which is very rare in Guangzhou. It's quite refreshing to go back to the hotel every day to go swimming in the pool.