轉自老外-Guangzhou: the megacity of Southern China

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Time to carry on with the photos...

13. Another metro ride.

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Guangzhou South metro station... absolutely spontaneously I decided to pay a quick visit to Guangzhou South Railway station

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15. The Guangzhou South Railway station. This is some small corner of the building. The building itself is just sick massive. Looks and feels more like a huge airport than a train station. Although for most part it still felt empty and quiet, no shops, cafes or oether places to hang around. I guess it will take some time for this Station to get into full steam. That should happen once Guangzhou-Zhuhai ICL will be fully operational and take most of the Guangzhou-Macau traffic (especially during weekends ) as well as the new HK-Guangzhou explress line will start running full service some time in 2014.

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16. A fast-forward jump to a different location: Guangzhou Railway Station. If anyone thoguht that Guangzhou South was unnecessarily big and underused I suggest visiting this place... it feels really crowded all around. I can only imagine what must be happening in this square during the new year holiday season. That's when you understand why China needs all those massive stations and new railways. Because the existing ones are simply overloaded.

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17. Guangzhou Station square. Lots of interesting characters all around. All of a sudden a small police car rushed into the place and the policeman started shouting something via the speaker. A dozen or so of shabby looking individuals all of a sudden got up and abandoned the space. Not sure what was going on. Perhaps they were selling something illegally? Most of them were wearing round caps and looked different from most other people. Nearby a number of similar-looking men were praying facing one direction.

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18. Metro station. Metro stations in Guangzhou are modern and spacious with some spaces dedicated to retail units. Quite similar to Hong Kong metro from what I remember

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19.A quick jump to another location - Zhujiang New Town. A masive multi-billion $ development on the bank of Pearl River. One of the "megaprojects" that are happening in almost every major Chinese city these days. It's meant to become the most iconic and modern CBD in Guangzhou... for now. It's still a massive construction site all around but even now it all looks simply stunning. Just WOW. And I don't mean just the skyscrapers but also the whole urban environment: streets, parks, squares, pedestrian walks... everything is so nice and convenient. Even late by night there are quite a few people coming there just to hang around and enjoy the lovely night views

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20. Currently Guanzghou's tallest - 440m high Guangzhou International Finance Center. Designed by Wilkinson Eyre Architects

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22. On the other side of tiver there is Canton Tower, a 600m tall TV/Observation Tower which, if I'm not mistaken and if Wikipedia is correct, is the 3rd tallest freestanding structure in the world today (after Burj Khalifa and Tokyo Sky Tree). Although it will be overtaken by Shanghai Tower and perhaps some other projects over the next few years. One thing I must say, however, that this must be the most beautiful and impressive building I have ever seen. Just absolutely stunning. Especially once you're near it. More photos later...

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25. Environment in Lingjiang Avenue

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26. 178m high CC Tower, built recently. Unfortunately I couldn't fund any info on this building. It's really interesting and one of my favorites in Guangzhou

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