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Hemmed in on all other flanks by rivers and hills, Guangzhou inevitably expands east to accommodate its ever-growing population. Shadowed by highrises and cut by expressways, Huanshi Lu and Dongfeng Lu comprise the city's most modern, fastest-growing area, mostly the domain of corporate headquarters. The architecture is outwardly impressive, but under the surface all is not well here; on Huanshi Lu, the towering GITIC Plaza is a monument to China's first corporate bankruptcy . The investment arm of the Guangdong Provincial Government, GITIC (Guangdong International Trust and Investment Corporation) was closed by the Bank of China after defaulting on an interest payment in late 1998, leaving debts estimated at 2.5 billion US dollars. Illicit loans, bribery, overborrowing and simply bad investments were all fingered for contributing to GITIC's collapse, and, with a stable Chinese economy vital to long-term financial security in Southeast Asia, the Chinese government is now desperately investigating the country's numerous other ITICs. Leaving all this behind, Huanghua Gang Park (daily 8am-5pm; Y2), northeast off Huanshi Dong Lu along Xianlie Lu, holds reminders of Sun Yatsen's abortive Canton Uprising against the Qing government in April 1911. The empire was already crumbling, and this failed coup was one of many enacted across the country in the months before events in Sichuan and Hubei finally demolished the dynasty. In 1918 a Mausoleum to the 72 Martyrs killed in Guangzhou was built at Huanghua Gang, a very peculiar monument designed to reflect the nationalities of numerous donors who had contributed to its construction - Buddhist iconography rubbing shoulders with a Statue of Liberty and Egyptian obelisk. Of more general appeal is Guangzhou Zoo , about a kilometre farther out along Xianlie Lu (9am-4pm; Y10; take bus #6 from Dongfeng Lu, one block east of the Sun Yatsen Memorial Hall). This is the third largest in the country, with the animals kept in relatively decent conditions - though far below what you'll probably consider pleasant. Among the rarities are clouded leopards, several species of wildfowl and, of course, pandas. Surrounding the train station 2km due east of the zoo, Tianhe is, in some ways, a monument to the bureaucratic urban planning which includes people as an afterthought - you'll most likely find yourself out this way en route to the East train station . A designed, rather than evolved, area of vast spaces of concrete paving, broad roads and glassy towers where pedestrians are reduced to specks - the total antithesis of Honan - the showpiece here is a huge sports stadium built for the 1987 National Games (Xiuyu Zhong Xiao metro). Tianhe's eastern side is slightly more liveable, featuring residential blocks home to expat families, and a few bars and restaurants catering to them.
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