Shamian Island í Guangzhou

Shamian Island, formerly known as Shameen Island, from its Cantonese pronunciation (Chinese: 沙面岛, pinyin: Shāmiàn dǎo) is an island in Guangzhou city, Guangdong province, China. The territory was originally divided in two concessions given to France and the United Kingdom by the Qing Dynasty government in the 19th century. The island's name literally means "sandy surface" in Chinese.


The island covers an area of 0.3 square kilometers[citation needed] and is a gazetted historical area that serves as a tranquil reminder of the colonial European period, with quiet pedestrian avenues flanked by trees and lined by historical buildings in various states of upkeep. The island is the location of several hotels, a youth hostel, restaurants and tourist shops selling curios and souvenirs.
Various bronze statues are scattered around the island which depict life as it was during earlier periods on the island, as well as from more recent times. For example, one statute entitled "A gentleman, a lady and a darn woman" shows a Western couple watching a Chinese woman darning cloth. Another depicts the changing appearances and stature of Chinese women, with a woman from colonial times in traditional clothing, a slightly taller woman from the early or mid 20th century wearing a cheongsam, and a relatively tall and slender young Chinese woman wearing shorts and talking on a mobile phone.
Since the early 2000s, Shamian Island has become well known for the many Western couples who reside there while seeking to adopt Chinese babies and young children, most of whom are orphaned and female. The White Swan Hotel is perhaps the best-known hotel in Guangzhou, having been in operation for many years, and is usually the hotel of choice for these couples. One reason for this popularity is that the hotel was once adjacent to the United States consulate, making it convenient to file paperwork and handle bureaucratic matters. The consulate has since moved (about 40 minutes away by car), but the hotel is still the most popular destination for adopting couples.


Adopting Families
Map of Sha Mian Island
Groceries, Diapers, Shopping and More

Dear friends,
Ni Hao! (Chinese for “hello,” pronounced Nee How). We’re pleased to offer you this map to help you get around Sha Main Island. We offer a description of numerous important places on the Island. Each place is numbered. Please find the corresponding number on the map to find each place’s location. The Island is small, so everything is within easy walking distance.
Where You’ll Stay Spot 2. White Swan Hotel,Most families stay here. Please go to http://www.whiteswanhotel.com, and you’ll see a complete description of this five-star hotel. It’s a wonderful place to begin your new family. Among it’s many fine amenities, the Hotel offers: Post Office ,Beauty Parlor and Massage ,Currency Exchange .
Spot 6.& 27.Old (New) Victory Hotel. Some of you will stay here. There are two locations. Please check their website at: http://www.vhotel.com/gdvhen/. This four-star hotels is quite affordable – and nice and comfortable,it's getting to more famous and popluar, that's why many adoption families came to stay here because they also have good price to compare with White Swan Hotel.
Where You’ll Need to Go Spot 1. American Consulate In Guangzhou,please check their web site for details http://www.usembassy-china.org.cn/guangzhou/
Spot 13. Kodak Digital Express & Spot 12. Sha mian Photo Shop ,You’ll have your baby’s passport photo taken at either of this two places ,if possible bring the pictures to get a granite etching – a unique and interesting art form, either Sherry's Place & others, but be sure to compare the quality and the price.
Spot 24.Physical Examination & Health Certification Department, here’s where you’ll go to have your baby’s physical examination done.
Food, Necessities & Shopping: Spot 7. Beatrice Grocery Store（倍顺超市） Yes, Sha Mian Island has a fully stocked grocery store! You’ll find baby food, bottled water (a lot less expensive that the White Swan), diapers, baby wipes, juice boxes, beer, wine, fresh bread, etc. Their prices are very good. It’s about a 10 minute walk from the White Swan, or if you want to get more stuff which they don't have in Sha Mian island, please stop by and ask Sherry's Place, we will tell you or write down Chinese/English of the right place and items you are looking for.
Spot 9. Sherry’s Place & Swan Courtyard.（沙面书画苑）Hello, my name is Sherry. My family (my sisters Bing, Daisy, Amy, and brother Jerry) run Sherry’s Place. For over a dozen years, we helped adopting families. Just like hundreds of families before you, please make Sherry’s Place your home away from home. Whatever you want and you need, we will try the best to do for you.
· Free Stroller: After you check in at the White Swan, stop by our place, and pick up your free stroller. You can use it all week; all we ask is that you donate 1 Yuan to help us keep the strollers in tip-top shape.
· Laundry Service: Take advantage of our expert laundry service, 5-Star Service and special deal for you.
· Free E-Mail: All week you can come by and check your e-mail – for Free ,(no purchase required).
· Relax: We invite you to enjoy our lovely courtyard (the largest on Sha Main Island).
· Shopping: And of course everyone loves to shop! At Sherry’s Place you’ll find literally hundreds of gifts for your baby, friends, family – and for you. We offer a wide selections at very reasonable prices. In particular, we pride ourselves on helping our customers find just the right gift,and also, you can bargain with us if you can not accept the offer from us, we are happy to negotiate with you and help you getting the favorite items from our place, but not too tight, we will agree whatever you say, because your happy smiles will bring us more than we expect.
· Need Help? If you have a question or need a recommendation on a good restaurant or an interesting place to visit, come in and ask us. You’re a long way from home – and we’re here to help
Spot 11 & 25. Seven Eleven.Now, there are two in Sha Mian Island,it's pretty similar to the Seven Elevens back home. You’ll find snacks, soda, some baby food and bottled water. Very reasonably priced. It’s small, but well stocked.
Where to Eat Spot 2, White Swan Hotel, it's expensive place, but it's still worth to go and eat for qulity stuff, because they have good condition and nice view of the Pearl River side and along with convenient room service. But you’ll find several fine restaurants in outside of hotels, they also offer English menus, and welcome you to bring your baby. Three people can eat a nice meal at these restaurants for 250 Yuan ($35.00).
Spot 8. Cow Bridge（牛桥餐厅）. Thailand cuisine. This restaurant is getting to popular for adoption groups, when you are there, you will feel it's a familiar place to eat and they take care of your baby very well.Very good place to have dinner or lunch. It’s a 10 or 15 minute walk from the White Swan; you can see it from Sherry’s Place and Swan Courtyard.
Spot 16. Lucy Bar（露丝吧） Very popular place to have party with your friends. Located at the front of Sha Mian Park. The offer both Western and Chinese food.
Spot 14. Coffee Restaurant（沙面咖啡餐馆） Just a few steps from the White Swan Hotel, a good and inexpensive place to have a quick snack, lunch or cup of coffee or tea. They’re open from 9:00 am to midnight.
Spot 28. Rose Bar（玫瑰园餐厅） Located in Sha Mian Park, along the Pearl River. A very romantic place to have dinner. It’s only open at right.
Spot 17. Lan Gui Fang Restaurant（兰桂芳）,it's near by the Tennis Courts. Delicious Chinese food and seafood.
Spot 12. there are two restaurants very close to each other, they are Qiao Mei Restaurant（侨美食家） and New Litchi restaurant.Traditional Chinese food, good places to have lunch and dinner, reasonable prices when you consider the Yuan to Dollar exchange rate.
Where to Go? What to See? Sha Mian Island is small and pedestrian friendly. Ideal for strolling your baby around. Here are three recommends for excursions on Sha Mian Island. I also suggest a nice trip to a park nearby Sha Mian Island: A stroll down Main Street: When you exit the White Swan Hotel, go right along South Street, then make a left and go up 4th Street. Half way up the block, you’ll find Sherry’s Place Private Courtyard. A peaceful place to relax. Then, when you leave the Courtyard, go left and continue up 4th St. At the first intersection, you’ll find Main Street. Go right. It’s a lovely tree-lined street with a median full of flowers and benches and badminton nets,and walk along Eastern Main Street in 10 minutes, you will find Sha Mian Play Ground which is Spot 19, a number of the exercise equipments free play and exercise there,especially for your babies, it's a definite good place to play with local children.......
And Stroll around Sha Mian Park Spot 15:（沙面公园）When you exit the White Swan Hotel, go right along South Street and on your right you’ll run into Sha Mian Park. It’s a wonderful place to relax, stroll the baby – and get a good taste of Chinese culture. You’ll see locals doing exercises, practicing traditional dances and Tai Ji, Kung Fu ,and playing badminton. The park also boasts a small amusement park with a train for children to ride in. A walk along the Pearl River is lovely. And it’s exciting to see all the river traffic.
Churches, Spot 22 Sha Mian Catholic Church， Spot 36. Guang Zhou Christian Council, you can also go to either of this two place on Sunday, there are many local people and foreigners to go to churches in this two places.
Back to Sherry's Place at Sherry Mama Co.
站长统计

Yuexiu Park í Guangzhou

Yuexiu Park is the largest park in downtown Guangzhou.

Covering an area of 860,000 square meters (212.5 acres), the park is made up of three artificial lakes and seven hills of Yuexiu Mountain; hence the name Yuexiu Park.
Yuexiu Park is a perfect combination of cultural relics and ecological tourism, reputed for its pretty water and hills as well as cultural relics. The main places of interest include the stone sculpture of the Five Rams, Zhenhai Tower, the site of the Ming Dynasty City Wall, and Square Cannon Site.
The Five-Ram Sculpture is one of the most famous structures in Guangzhou. It has become the emblem of Guangzhou City. Legend has it that more than 2,000 years ago, Guangzhou was a barren land with people who despite hard work were suffering from famine. One day five immortals in five-color garments came riding on five rams, playing their legendary music. The rams held sheaves of rice in their mouths. The immortals left the sheaves of rice for the Guangzhou people, gave blessings to the city and left. The rams turned into stone and the city of Guangzhou became a rich and populous place. Guangzhou got the name of the City of Rams and the City of Ears.
Zhenhai Tower, better known among the locals as the Five-Story Tower, is one of the landmarks of Guangzhou city. An interesting historical record has it that Zhu Liangzu, Yongjia Marquis of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), saw yellow and purple air rising over Yuexiu Mountain and was told by a sorcerer that it was the omen of a new emperor. To subdue this omen, Zhu Liangzu ordered this tower to be built in 1380. Over the past 600 years, the tower has been destroyed five times and set up five times. Now it is the Guangzhou Museum, housing relics and documents showing Guangzhou's history over 2, 000 years. Known as the first tower in Lingnan (South of Nanling Mountain) Area, Zhenhai Tower now is 28 meters (91.9feet) high and 16 meters (52.5 feet) wide. The striking contrast of green glazed titles and red walls makes the tower elegant.
While the historical traces create a serene environment, singing birds and exuberant plants add vigor and natural beauty to the park. Three artificial lakes -- Dongxiu, Nanxiu, and Beixiu-- cover an area of more than 50,000 square meters (538,213 square feet). Dongxiu Lake and Nanxiu Lake are tranquil and elegant, inviting painting and sketching artists. Beixiu Lake, surrounded by trees, is open for boating and fishing. What's more, the lakes are connected with arch bridges and decorated with pavilions and corridors in the Lingnan Style. Flower exhibitions are held here from time to time. For nature lovers who can't get to the faraway countryside or forests, Yuexiu Park is an optimum choice with modern conveniences.
As a large comprehensive park, Yuexiu Park provides an amusement park, swimming pool, gymnasium, restaurants, stalls, museum and art museum besides plant and flower viewing area. All visitors find pleasure in Yuexiu Park.
Tips:There are five gates to Yuexiu Park, namely the Facet, East, West, North and South Gates. There are many buses at each gate with Metro Line 2 arriving at Facet Gate.

Admission Fee: CNY 5
Opening Hours: 06:00 to 21:00
RecommendedTime for a Visit: 45 minutes
Bus Route:5,7,24,29,101,103

Yuntai park í Guangzhou

Yuntai park.

It is part of Baiyun Hill Scenic Region. Grown here are flowers famous at home and abroad and city flowers and state flowers of Guangzhou's friendly cities. Yuntai Garden is characterized by rich artistic features with both ancient and modern culture and Western and Oriental style structures.

Guangzhou Zoo

GUANGZHOU ZOO: Located on Xianlie Road, 430,000 square metres in area, it is the largest zoo in South China. More than 2,000 animals in 200 species are on exhibition in the zoo, including the giant panda, golden-haired monkey, red-crowned crane and other precious animals unique to China.

The animals inside the zoo are exhibited in different areas according to their types, for example, the insects, reptiles and amphibians, birds, primates, felines, and herbivores. What's more, there are not only rare animals from China such as panda, golden monkey, South China tiger, elk, brow-antlered deer, and black-necked crane, but also those rare animals all over the world such as chimpanzee, giraffe, African elephant, hippopotamus, zebra, rhinoceros, and black swan.
Besides, the zoo has the largest overland ocean exhibition house and the largest butterfly ecology garden in China; and the delicate and special outdoor fancy fishes exhibition garden, Jinlin Garden, the only one in China; as well as the exciting and adventurous performance of wild animals training.

Chan academy í Guangzhou

Guangdong Folk Art Museum (Chen Clan Academy)
广东民间工艺博物馆（陈家祠）

Open hours: 8:30-17:30(daily) Admission Fee: ￥10 (adult), ￥5 (students, pupils and children) Add: Chen Jia Ci, Zhong Shan Qi Rd, Liwan District, (West to the crossroads of Zhongshan-7 Rd. and Kangwang Rd.) 中山七路陈家祠Tel: 8181 4371,8181 7371, 8181 4559

Chen Clan's Academy, sitting in the west town of Guangzhou, is just most recommendable buildup of folk art and tradition of the city. The academy was established in 1894 in Qing Dynasty. Its construction was financed by all the 72 Chen clans in Guangdong to provide to Chen juniors accommodation and place to study and prepare for provincial examination. Later it was changed to be the Chen Clan’s Industry College, and then middle schools afterwards.
It features classic excellences of typical Lingnan architecture, well-and-balanced layout, exquisite, and richly-decorated. You are greeted in a spacious square just outside and then attracted into the open matrix of four landscaped courtyards, imposing halls and peaceful corridors inside. Wood, brick and stone carvings, clay and pottery sculptures, iron structuring, glazed glass windows, painting, calligraphies and so on by local masters are all in functional art here and there.

It is now the biggest, best preserved and decorated clan complex in Guangdong.
Adding to its in-built cultural gems, wide collections of Cantonese folk craftworks and life items have been showed here, such as porcelain, embroidery, paper-cutting, historical furniture, ink slabs, and various carvings (such as ivory, jade, bone, nut ,miniature etc.) , since the ancient Academy was designated as the Guangdong Museum of Folk Art in 1959.

Most highlighted are the clay sculpture collection of Xiguan (Westend of Guangzhou downtown) Folklore for Century, by Wan Zhaoquan, a local master sculptor. They give lovely and vivid presentation of the very tradition of local life, tinted with passion, understanding, pride, humor and historic reminiscence. Majestic buildings, exquisite constructional details, delicate courtyards and gardens, and fabulous art pieces are well mingled to pose tasteful pleasure at ease. The Academy has been named as one of the Eight Sightseeing Sites of Guangzhou in New century and the National Key Historic Site.

Transportation: Subway (line1) - Stop of Chen Jia Ci (Chen Clan’s Academy) Bus- 85,88,104,107,128 (Gaoji Stop), 268 (Chen Jia Ci),or 15,52,55,105,124,133,193,196,205,207,231,232,256,275,530,539,555 (Zhongshan Ba lu)

Service: Walkie-guide (￥10) Recommendations: Building itself: Gate-Spirits, Constructional wood carvings, halls and rooms, courtyards, brick and tile carving and glazing, Art shows: Clay sculptures of Xiguan Folklore for Century by Wan Zhaoquan, carvings of jade, bone, miniature and nuts

Source: www.fodors.com

Mömmunni var létt þegar húð sá loksins að Chan academy væri menningarleg stofnun. Því að við fyrstu leit á Google var mest um heimsfrægan kínverskan pókerspilara sem býr í Ameríku en er frá Guangzhou. Húkkít !!! Þetta gat nú heldur ekki verið að það ætti að sýna okkur pókerspil - ekki það að ég hafi eitthvað á móti póker - nei nei - fannst þetta bara ekki viðeigandi á túristaplaninu okkar :-)

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GET IT LOUDER!Creative LifeMore InformationGuangzhou: Grandview Mall#228 Tianhe Street, Guangzhou2007.6.23-7.8Located in Guangzhou's dynamic Tianhe commercial district with 57,000 square meters in site area and 420,000 square meters in total area, Grandview Mall includes Asia's largest modern shopping center: a 7-storey building that measures over 300,000 square meters with a flow of 200,000 people per weekday, 400,000 people per weekend day, and over 1,000,000 people per day during the golden week holiday.