Scenic (tourist free) landscape places in Guangzhou?

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  1. #1

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    Sep 2010
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    Scenic (tourist free) landscape places in Guangzhou?

    I'm planning to go to Guangzhou which I've left off my map for years - generally I tend to rush through it to avoid it, rather than spend any time there.

    Curious to know if there are less urbanised places left in Guangzhou which other travellers would recommend. I'm not interested in package tours and would rather travel from village to village on my own, or make my own way around, maybe up to Fujian province again.

    The southern colonial style places (relics) I've spent some time in already.

    Thanks


  2. #2

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    There is Qingyuan, north of Guangzhou with a couple of temples and a nice river trip. Not many tourists.

    By 'southern colonial style places', do you mean you have been to Kaiping?

    Chaozhou is quite a nice town. Going on to Fujian and the toulous is a good idea (although quite popular with tourists now).


  3. #3

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    Thanks. I was worried it might be quite cold there at this time of the year. Hunan was already heading 4 degrees some nights.

    Have you been to Meizhou and the eastern front in Guangzhou?

    The Tou Lou visits were terrible. I couldn't walk without being bumped by tourists from the mainland. There were too many of them and always in the way. Everyone just herded from one stop to another aross the Tou Lou paths.

    Sha Mian's colonial architectural legacy is more abundant - I liked Kai Ping, but it doesn't take more than a day to cover.


  4. #4

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    Quote Originally Posted by Palet:
    The Tou Lou visits were terrible. I couldn't walk without being bumped by tourists from the mainland. There were too many of them and always in the way. Everyone just herded from one stop to another aross the Tou Lou paths.
    Maybe because it's on the mainland that you kept on bumping into mainland tourists. Funny that!

  5. #5

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    I think it depends which toulous you go to. I went a year or so ago, and travelled independently so avoided the crowds and really enjoyed myself. You do need some Chinese skills, or travel with a Chinese speaker, to be able to do that really. We were able to hire a motorbike with driver to take us around some of the toulous which don't get any tour buses. We then stayed the night in one. It can be quite hard to understand the Fujian accent even if you understand Chinese.

    Meizhou - I think I passed through. It's the place where lots of ceramics are made, but on a factory scale making lots of dust.

    There's no heating in this part of China, so it does get cold this time of year. You also don't want to be travelling there at Chinese New Year.


  6. #6

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    I quite liked the Chen Family Ancestral temple and when I visited it was sparsely populated with visitors. There isn't any English on the information signs but that didn't detract much from the experience.

    some info here