Top 8 Things to do in Guangzhou at Night

Guangzhou is one of the richest cities in mainland China, and it does not go to bed early. The river is lit, the tower is open until 10:30pm and the food streets are at their busiest after dinner. Here are eight of the more popular choices with visitors, with the hours that actually apply, because a few things older guides recommend for the evening now close at teatime or no longer exist.

#1: Visit the Canton Tower

The Canton Tower is one of the landmarks of Guangzhou, a place you should visit even if you are on a business trip. At 604 m it is the tallest tower in China (the Shanghai Tower is taller, but that is a skyscraper, not a tower), and after dark its lattice waist changes color over the Pearl River. The indoor deck sits at 433 m and the open-air platform at 450 m. Above that are the two rides that justify the ticket: the Bubble Tram, a horizontal sky wheel whose glass pods circle the top of the tower at roughly 455 to 460 m, and the Sky Drop, a free fall down the antenna mast from 485 m to 455 m. The tower is open 9:30am to 10:30pm daily and both rides run until closing, though they open late on Mondays. Deck tickets start at roughly 135 yuan, and ride packages cost about double. Time the ticket for an hour before sunset and you see the city twice: once in daylight, once lit.

#2: Take a Night Cruise on the Pearl River

The Pearl River is China’s third-longest river, roughly 2,400 km from source to sea, built from the Xi, Bei and Dong rivers, which meet in the delta around Guangzhou. A night cruise is the easiest way to see the city at its best: the Canton Tower, the Zhujiang New Town skyline and the bridges are all lit along the water. Boats leave from three main piers: Dashatou, the largest, with the most choice of boats; Tianzi, a short walk from Beijing Road; and the Canton Tower pier at the foot of the tower. Evening departures run from about 6:40pm, and the skyline lighting goes out around 10:30pm, so do not book the last boat. A basic lower-deck seat costs about 90 to 110 yuan; open top decks and buffet-dinner cruises cost two to four times that. Tickets are real-name, so carry your passport.

#3: Take a Stroll in Yuexiu Park

Yuexiu Park is free and open from 6am to 10pm, which makes it one of the few green spaces in the city you can walk after dark. It is the largest park in central Guangzhou, built around Yuexiu Hill, and holds the Five Rams Sculpture, the stone emblem of the “City of Rams,” plus lakes, sports grounds and a flower exhibition hall. The Guangzhou Museum inside Zhenhai Tower keeps day hours (9am to 5:30pm), so plan the museum for the afternoon and the park walk for the evening, when the locals come out to exercise and dance.

#4: Go To Shamian Island

Shamian Island is a sandbank in the Pearl River that was the British and French concession in the 19th century, and it still holds more than 150 European-style buildings: baroque, gothic and neo-classical, many of them former consulates, banks and churches. The tree-lined streets are quiet by day and quieter at night, which is the point. A handful of cafes and bars stay open into the evening, and the waterfront is good for a walk after dinner. The one warning: this is where tea-ceremony touts work, so decline invitations from friendly strangers to a particular tea house.

#5: Drink on the River at Party Pier

Guangzhou’s bar scene has moved to the water. The best single stop is Party Pier (Pati), the old Zhujiang Brewery site in Haizhu converted into a strip of bars, beer halls and restaurants along roughly 800 m of riverfront, looking across the water at the Zhujiang New Town towers. It is the cheapest good view in the city. For cocktail bars rather than beer gardens, the expat crowd drinks around Xingsheng Road in Zhujiang New Town and nearby Liede, where a drink in an upscale bar runs around 90 to 130 yuan. These are the places many foreigners living in Guangzhou end up on a Friday night.

#6: Shopping in the Wholesale Markets (Go by Day)

This is the one daytime entry on the list, and it is here because older guides send people to the markets “as evening falls” for bargains and they arrive to shutters. Guangzhou runs on wholesale, and its clothing markets, from White Horse by the railway station to Shahe and Shisanhang, are worth seeing at least once. The White Horse (Baima) Clothing Market trades from 8:30am to 5:30pm, and the Shahe and Shisanhang markets start at dawn and wind down by early afternoon. Go in the morning, then come back to the river for the evening. The electronics markets keep daytime hours too; Dashatou’s second-hand stalls close around 6pm. If you are buying at White Horse or Zhanxi to resell rather than to take home, that is a sourcing job, not a shopping trip, and our product sourcing team runs those market days from first stall to shipping.

#7: Walk Beijing Road and Shangxiajiu After Dark

For night shopping, go where the locals go: the pedestrian streets. Beijing Road in Yuexiu is the busiest after sunset, with chain stores, snack stalls and, under glass in the pavement, the excavated layers of the old road itself, stacked from the Tang dynasty to the Republican era and visible at any hour. Shangxiajiu, a few stops west in Liwan, is the older strip, lined with qilou arcade buildings and Cantonese snack shops. Both are dense, so keep your phone in a front pocket. Tianzi pier is a short walk from Beijing Road, so this pairs well with a river cruise.

#8: Watch the Chimelong International Circus

Chimelong, in Panyu district in the south of the city, is a resort of five parks: Chimelong Paradise, the Safari Park, the Water Park, the Bird Park and the International Circus. Only the circus is built for the evening. The main show starts around 7:30pm and runs for 80 to 90 minutes in a purpose-built arena, with acrobats and animal acts from troupes around the world; schedules shift by season, so check the time on your ticket. Older guides also list a Chimelong Night Zoo. There is no standalone night zoo in Chimelong’s current lineup, and the Safari Park closes at 6:30pm even in summer, though the Water Park has stayed open until 10pm on summer nights. Spend the day in the parks and finish at the circus.

Planning things to do in Guangzhou at night

The list clusters into two easy evenings. One is the river: Canton Tower at dusk, then a cruise from the tower’s own pier, then a drink at Party Pier a short taxi ride east. The other is the old city: Yuexiu Park before it shuts at 10pm, then Beijing Road for food, with Tianzi pier close by if you still want the water. Chimelong is a full day out on its own, so give it one.

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