Travel options – The ultimate perk of teaching English in Guangzhou

The best Guangzhou highlights

What sets Guangzhou apart is the beautiful juxtaposition of the architecture: old and new blend seamlessly, as do East and West. You’ll undoubtedly spend the first few weekends in the city just getting your bearings of the city and checking out the most popular sites like Shamian Island and Zhongshan Lu and the older areas around Huangpu. Be a tourist as soon as you arrive! We find that many TEFL teachers eventually feel far too ‘at home’ in Guangzhou to hit the tourist hot-spots (because we’re adopted locals now, you see) but they’re really worth exploring and they’re a great introduction to the city when you first arrive.

Out and about from Guangzhou

Traditional villages still left untouched (by overzealous developers) offer fantastic weekend diversions, many of them being less than two hours away from the city. UNESCO-listed Kaiping Diaolou is one such treasure: a 17^th-century maze of 1800 buildings including multi-storey watchtowers that make for excellent photography. There are many such villages in this area and you can make a whole day out of visiting a few.