GUANGZHOU

Guangzhou is an authentic Chinese city. Compared with the rest of China, it is highly intense: it has more of everything: more wealth, poverty, noise, pollution and congestion. Guangzhou is a confusing, immense, swarming city and the production centre of China.

Guangzhou does not boast a significant reputation as a tourist city. The sights may be modest but, even so, the city has much to offer. To stray off the main streets is to encounter the real China. And as a shopping place, Guangzhou has no equal: most of the world's leather products are made in the region and more than 90 per cent of its clocks and watches. Make no mistake, you'll get bargains here like nowhere else!

The traffic of Guangzhou is chaotic. The city's streets are densely packed with vehicles for a large part of the day, travel distances are long and the air polluted. When travelling around the city it's worth using the metro whenever possible. If you take a taxi, it's good to remember that the drivers don't understand English, nor maps either more often than not, so it's always good to ask your hotel to write the address in Chinese.

Guangzhou is particularly known as fair and exhibition city. Huge fairs are always organised in the city in April and October, when hotel prices triple and the city is filled with businessmen and traders. It's worth bearing this in mind if your planning an ID trip.