轉自老外-Guangzhou: the megacity of Southern China

cmh912

轉自國外論壇.
  作者: Pansori
   Repost from global forum.
  外國人的鏡頭裡面,我們的城市給了他們的感覺是最真實的國際形象..
  後面更精彩..本人只轉載了部分..
Guangzhou: the megacity of Southern China

Guangzhou was my second leg of the quick China tour I did in April. After exploring the ultra-modern and hyper-dynamic Shenzhen I took a one-hour CRH train ride to Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province and China's 3rd largest city with a population of 12.7 million people. It's a big city and it feels so.

It has to be noted that Guangzhou is effectivelly within commuting distance from Shenzhen and all other urban centers in the Pearl River Delta which effectively makes it a part of what has become one of world's largest urban areas. It has been announced that the cities of Pearl River Delta are to be transformed into one huge megapolis by creating better transportation links and integrating various aspects of public transport and communications between the existing cities.

Guangzhou, unlike Shenzhen, is not a new city. It's been there for over 2000 years. Despite expecting some grit and evidences of an old city I found a city having undergone (and still largely undergoing) a complete and uttermost transformation which I would describe not as just a 'facelift' or an 'upgrade' but rather a complete rebuilding of the vast city. Something that is hard to imagine even in theory but something that seems to be happening in China these days and for the past few decades. I was impressed. Very impressed. Perhaps more impressed than I had ever been before in my life. I simply could not believe what I was seeing because I could not even imagine such amount of construction work taking place just about everywhere I went.

Anyway, some quick background on Guangzhou first.

Map:


Those thick yellow roads are expressways. Guangzhou as all PRD in general has one hell of a motorway network

cmh912

1. First thing I got to see was the metro. I had to take Line 1 from Guanzghou East Railway Station to Fangcun which was 12 stops away to the West... the train looks empty because it was a terminal station. However later I got to realise that Line 1 is pretty much always crowded and gets really bad during peak times. Currently Guangzhou has 8 metro lines and is about to add another nine by 2020. At present system route length is 236km with 144 stations. By 2020 it should be around 600km in route length and be one of the largest metro systems in the world. In fact it already is in top-10 in terms of size and passenger volumes. This is freakin impressive considering that the first line opened in 1997... things are happening quickly there

cmh912

2. Fangcun area in Liwan district where I will be staying in my lovely and charming hostel. About 12km away from Guangzhou East station and Tianhe CBD

hnusrs

哈哈，这到底是褒还是在贬呢，一个与深圳不一样的古城却在以令他震惊的速度与规模重建

cmh912

3. Changdi Street. A quiet and leafy street near the riverside accompanied by riverside walk and a small park. It seems there are quite a few restaurants and hotels there too. Just a nice looking place and certainly great place to stay in a hostel. It's going to get more buzzy in the night

cmh912

4. Interesting low-rise architecture

cmh912

5. Riverside walk

cmh912

應該說是舊的也能建得很不錯. 4# hnusrs

cmh912

6. Pearl River

cmh912

7. A small but very lovely riverside park. Lots of places to sit down and enjoy the place. I have noticed, especially in the evening, there are lots of couples kissing and snogging everywhere in that park... I even started feeling weird walking around with my camera

cmh912

8. Riverside International Youth Hostel. This is the place I stayed at. I would highly recommend it for those who travel to GZ and need affordable, contemporary yet fun and charming accommodation. Great place to meet people from around the world and China itself (as it is with all good hostels, I guess)

cmh912

9. Views around Changdi street. Thi is going to be my place for the next few days. It's really quiet and instantly feels like home.

cmh912

10. The area is packed with bars and restaurants

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11.

cmh912

12.