Haizhu East: Huangpu Old Port, Xiaozhou, the Wetland and Pazhou

The China Import and Export Fair complex on Pazhou Island — the largest trade fair in the world by floor space, held twice a year since 1957 (April-May and October-November, three phases each) and, for the foreign buyers who come, the entire point of Guangzhou. Outside the fair the halls are closed to visitors and there is nothing to 'see' but a very large building on the riverfront; during it the rule that matters is the buyer badge: free, made on a passport and a business card at the airport, Guangzhou South station or the halls, valid for future sessions. Hotel prices across Haizhu and Tianhe double, and Metro Line 8 Pazhou station is a crush at 17:00. This entry is the fair's rulebook, not a sightseeing tip.

The clan hall where Deng Shichang was born — the captain who rammed his sinking cruiser Zhiyuan at the Japanese line at the Yalu in 1894 and went down with her, the one Qing naval hero everyone in China learned about at school. His family enlarged the hall with the court's compensation in 1895; it is a classic three-bay, two-court Lingnan ancestral hall, grey brick and carved timber, with a ship model and a sea-battle sand table inside, a well and a 170-year-old sterculia tree he is said to have planted in the back garden, and the small district museum in the side wings. Free, Tue-Sun 9:00-17:00, no booking; Line 8 Fenghuang Xincun or Tongfu West, then a walk through the old lanes of Longdaowei.

1,100 hectares of orchard-and-creek wetland on the city's new central axis — the 'green heart' south of Canton Tower, a Ramsar site since 2023 with 198 bird species counted. Three parts with three rules: Haizhu Lake (free, 7:30-21:00, a lake with the tower behind it, Line 3 Datang) and two ticketed wetland zones — Phase 1 'Longtan' with the Lingnan archway and wok-ear houses (Line 18 Longtan) and Phase 2 'Linzhou', the wilder orchard-creek maze (south gate, Line 3 Liyu plus 1.7 km). The ticketed zones close Mondays, cap 3,000 visitors a day and sell through the '海珠湿地' WeChat official account or at the gate with ID. Best in March-April.

The anchorage of the Canton System: from 1757 every foreign ship trading with China had to drop anchor here, 10 km downstream of the city, and the Swedish Götheborg and the American Empress of China both did. What survives is a village (Huangpu Village, medieval by foundation) with fifteen clan halls, a rebuilt customs compound housing a free memorial hall on the maritime trade, a small park on the old waterfront and a lane of snack shops — the 'Huangpu egg' omelette and boat congee are the local orders. Free; the memorial hall keeps museum hours (Tue-Sun 9:00-17:00) while the village and quay are open ground. Reach it by Line 4 to Wanshengwei then bus 229, or a taxi from Pazhou.

The imperial temple to the God of the South Sea, founded in 594 at the mouth of the Pearl River estuary where ships from the Maritime Silk Road first made land — the state sacrifice for safe voyages for 1,400 years, with a stone forest of imperial steles, the 'Sunrise Pavilion' where poets watched the sea, and a foreign envoy's statue in the hall. Rebuilt 1986-91 and a national relic since 2013; the Guangzhou Maritime Museum (free) opened beside it. ¥10, sold online, Tue-Sun 9:00-17:00, closed Mondays — except for the 'Boluo Dan' temple fair around the 13th day of the second lunar month, the biggest folk fair in the delta, when it opens daily and needs a timed booking. Line 13 Nanhai Shenmiao station, 45 minutes from the centre; the far end of the 'Huangpu day'.

The 1856 home and studio of the painters Ju Chao and Ju Lian, named for the ten fragrant flowers they grew — the birthplace of the 'Geshan school' whose students (Gao Jianfu, Chen Shuren) founded the Lingnan school of painting, the modern Cantonese style. A small restored Lingnan garden of three pavilions plus a 2010 gallery wing, free, in a lane off Jiangnan Avenue ten minutes from Line 8 Changgang. Tue-Sun 9:00-17:00, no booking. The quietest museum in Haizhu: an hour, on the way to or from the Deng Shichang hall.

The 1900s-1930s campus of the American-founded Canton Christian College (Lingnan University) — red-brick halls with green-tile roofs under banyans on the south bank, the finest surviving Western college campus in south China, now the main campus of Sun Yat-sen University. Since September 2023 the public can enter only on weekends, public holidays and vacation days, by real-name reservation on the WeChat mini-program '中大逸码通行', released seven days ahead at 20:00. The university's rules say the mini-program 'currently supports only PRC ID cards' — foreign nationals are told to 'contact a host unit on campus'. In practice a passport holder without a host cannot book. Line 8 Sun Yat-sen University station is at the south gate, the only visitor gate.

The officer school Sun Yat-sen opened on 16 June 1924 with Soviet money and a Nationalist-Communist staff — Chiang Kai-shek as commandant, Zhou Enlai running the political department — whose first classes led both sides of the next twenty-five years of Chinese war. The 1996-rebuilt school compound, Sun's memorial room and 1930 monument, the club (restored for the 2024 centenary), the pool and the East Expedition cemetery sit on Changzhou Island in the river east of the city. Free, but with real-name booking up to seven days ahead on the museum's WeChat ticketing account; foreign passports are processed at the reception desk (观众接待中心) at the museum entrance. Tue-Sun 9:00-17:00 (entry to 16:30), Mondays closed. Get there by Metro Line 5/13 Yuzhu then the S10 ferry (¥2) or the ¥20 tourist boat to the academy's own pier, or Line 7 Changzhou and a 1.4-km walk.

A Lingnan water village inside the city's south-east orchard belt: tidal creeks, stone bridges, banyans, a Qing clan hall, a Mao-era Soviet-style village hall and the last three oyster-shell houses — walls built from shells dug out of old sand bars. Founded in the Yuan-Ming transition, 'Yingzhou' was a fruit-growers' island until artists and cafés arrived in the 2000s; it is now a national 'traditional village' and a working neighbourhood where people still live, so you are a guest. Free, open ground, no gate. No metro: Line 3 Kecun then bus 252, or Line 8 Chigang then bus 45 (district page) — budget 40 minutes from the centre.

The national museum of the 1911 revolution, opened in 2011 for the centenary on Changzhou Island 1.5 km from the Whampoa Academy — a large modern building on the riverbank with the story of the Guangzhou uprisings, the 72 Martyrs of Huanghuagang and the Guangdong revolutionaries, told with 6,600 collected items including Sun Yat-sen family belongings. Free, and no booking needed since July 2024 (pass the security check and walk in), Tue-Sun 9:00-17:00 (entry to 16:15), Mondays closed. Line 7 Changzhou Exit E and a 1-km walk; do it with the academy as one island day.