Handpicked experience · Guangzhou
Guangzhou, China
A tower pinched into a waist by twisting one ellipse against another, a ferris wheel lying flat at 450 metres, and a river named after a rock now buried under a street.
The 600-meter high Canton Tower is one of the highest TV towers in the world.
Then you will take a night cruise to enjoy the amazing lights along the Peal River.
The city seen in daylight and after dark in a single afternoon
A private vehicle handling the transfer to the pier
Dinner served on the water rather than squeezed in beforehand
A guide to explain the riverbank you are passing
Very little walking involved
A private afternoon-into-evening in Guangzhou: time at Canton Tower as the light goes, then across to the water for the second half of the evening, timed so you see the city both in daylight and lit.
Six hours, most of it either at the tower or on the water, with a private vehicle handling the transfer between them. There is very little walking. The order is built around sunset, which is the only part of the schedule that is not flexible.
The tower is 604 metres and looks twisted because it is: the ellipse at the top is rotated relative to the one at the bottom, and the steel lattice connecting them has to spiral to keep up. Where the two ellipses are furthest out of phase, the structure pinches inward, which is why locals call it the slim waist rather than anything official. For about a year after it opened in 2010 it was the tallest tower in the world.
On the roof, at around 450 metres, sits a ferris wheel mounted horizontally — capsules that crawl around the rim of the building rather than turning in a vertical circle. It is the highest ferris wheel anywhere and takes about twenty minutes to complete a lap. There is also, at a similar height, a free-fall drop for people who consider the view insufficiently stressful.
The river is named after a rock. A large reef island sat in the channel here and was said to glow at night, earning it the name Sea Pearl; the river took its name from that. During twentieth-century embankment works the channel was narrowed and the rock was absorbed into the north bank. It is still there, underneath a street, which means the Pearl River is named after something that is now landlocked and invisible.
For most of a century, from 1757 until 1842, foreign merchants could trade with China at exactly one place: a row of warehouses on this riverbank at Guangzhou, outside the city wall, where they were confined to a strip of land and forbidden to learn Chinese, bring wives or stay through the off-season. Everything Europe drank, wore and shipped from China came through that one bottleneck, and your cruise passes the site.
The city's founding story has five immortals arriving on rams, each carrying rice, to end a famine — after which the rams turned to stone. Guangzhou has been the City of Rams ever since, and the statue of them is as close as the city has to a civic emblem.
Decide before you arrive how high up the tower you want to go, since the upper levels are ticketed on their own. The buffet is what is served on the boat that evening; bring cash if you want anything beyond it.
Open it to pick a date and work out the price.
What the fare covers, and what to budget for separately.
The practical detail, and the answers people actually ask for.
Because the ellipse at the top is rotated against the one at the base, so the steel lattice between them spirals. Where they are most out of phase the tower narrows, which is why it is known locally as the slim waist.
A ferris wheel mounted flat, with capsules travelling around the rim at about 450 metres — the highest anywhere, taking roughly twenty minutes per lap. There is also a free-fall drop at a similar height.
From a reef island in the channel said to glow at night, called the Sea Pearl. Embankment work in the twentieth century absorbed it into the north bank, so the rock now sits under a street.
The only place foreigners could trade with China between 1757 and 1842. Merchants were confined to a strip of warehouses outside the city wall, barred from learning Chinese or bringing families.
A founding legend has five immortals arriving on rams carrying rice to end a famine, after which the rams turned to stone. The statue of them is the closest thing the city has to an emblem.
No. Deck admission is arranged separately from this booking, so decide before you arrive whether you want to go up.
Around sunset — the tower first while there is light, then the cruise once the city is lit. That sequence is the one fixed element of the six hours.