China Guide
Fujian, Guangdong and Hainan Island
Around Changshou Lu
Most of the district around Changshou Lu, in the southwest of the downtown area, retains its Ming-dynasty street plan and a splash of early twentieth-century architecture, making for excellent random walks. In addition to some of Guangzhou's biggest shopping plazas and a crowd of markets spreading into each other south from Changshou Lu right down to the river, several famousrestaurants are here, and the area is particularly busy at night.
Shops and markets selling jade run all the way from the pedestrian square on Xiajiu Lu right up to Changshou Lu, culminating in two multistorey jade shopping malls newly built either side of the Hualin Si Buddhist temple (daily 9am–5.30pm; ¥3), founded as a modest nunnery by the Brahman prince Bodhidharma in 527. After his Chan teachings caught on in the seventeenth century, the main hall was enlarged to house five hundred arhat sculptures ranged along the cross-shaped aisles, and Hualin remains the most lively temple in the city .
A maze of alleys and Qing-era homes (some of which are protected historic relics) runs down to two streets lined with restored 1920s facades and pedestrianized at the weekends – Dishifu Lu to the west and Xiajiu Lu to the east; places to eat and shop around here are legion, the pavements always crammed to capacity. South off Xiajiu Lu, the infamous Qingping Market is an intriguing place for a browse, with each intersecting east– west lane forming dividing lines for the sale of different goods: dried medicines, spices and herbs, fresh vegetables, livestock, birds and fish. Once one of China's most confronting – not to say gory – markets, this has been scaled down considerably in recent years with the removal of rare animals and large-scale streetside butchering, though it remains a lively and busy affair, amply illustrating the Cantonese demand for fresh and unusual food.