Any one of you love surprises as much as I do?🤩 Guangzhou was definitely one pleasant surprise for me! I had the chance to explore Guangzhou, for 16 hours, thanks to my layover with China Southern Air ( CSAir). Long layovers are definitely for the win!💃💃 Because most of what I did was catered for by the airline this is going to be a short and sweet post😋. Here is a summary of both tips and activities I got into during the 16 hours.
First things first is a reminder to kindly book your ticket as early as you can afford to. This will help you get a better rate as we are all about minimizing the 💸 spent.😉 As you book with CSAir, also remember to chose a layover longer than 8 hours as this is the requirement for free accomodation/ tour. Now that I have covered the most important part in the process let’s get into the different tips;
Timing: When booking your flight chose an itinerary that arrives in Guangzhou before 7am and one that leaves Guangzhou at 12 midnight for the return journey. I chose this so that I could experience the city during the day and at night. I ended up enjoying my night time more than the day😅. Chinese people really know how to have a good time👯.
24- hours permit: Because China is not Visa free for Kenyans, you will need to apply for the 24 hour free permit upon arrival. It is not a hectic process; something between 10 to 30 minutes depending on the number of people in line. Besides the counter where you will get the boarding pass for your outbound flight is the permit application desk. Have all your factual details with you as they are a little bit strict. Once you successfully get the permit you can proceed to immigration and then to the CSAir desk.
Accomodation: CSAir are the OG’s when it comes to their free accomodation 🙌. Once I got to the desk I was bombarded with options 🤣. All their hotels are 5 and 4 stars and are located in very different settings so you can chose whichever environment you want to be in. On my departure journey I chose the Oubon Hotel that is right in the city. I did this because it was near the tour location’s and I also wanted to explore the up town malls. On my return journey, I chose the Boya Hotel which is in ‘down town’ Guangzhou. I chose this because I wanted to explore the market streets but ended up enjoying more because China gets quite busy at night 😆.
Internet: I entirely used the airport and hotel WiFi. What surprised me was that in China, you need a VPN to be able to use most of the apps. On WhatsApp I was unable to send pictures and voice notes since I did not have the VPN. If you have family like mine kindly alert them of this😅 you do not want to promise them pictures that will not come😆.
Language: This was a huge challenge even translator couldn’t solve for me😭. Except for hotel and airport staff very few people knew English. I think that’s how Chinese people, who don’t know English, feel when trying to get directions in Kenya😅. Also remember to download Chinese offline on translator 📝
Money: During my return layover I chose to stay in a hotel close to the city center so I could explore the markets. I had to change my money and made the mistake of changing at the hotel 😭. The rates were bad. Make sure to change at the airport for better rates as their ATMs also don’t recognize our ATMs; it didn’t recognize my Visa card.
Shopping: If you chose to roam the streets and get something please practise self control😆. Everything in Guangzhou is affordable and you don’t want to be in a situation with less money in a foreign country🤣. Clothes, hand bags, accessories, shoes, phone accessories and anything you can think of is there at affordable prices. You can also avoid using up all the money in your other destination; I wished I hadn’t.
Now that I’ve shared my few tips let’s get into the exciting things I did during my layover💃;
Stay at Boy HolidayHotel: We arrived at this hotel for breakfast before going out for the tour. I recognized nothing on the menu😅 other than some small things that could pass for mini-sausages. The hotel is very beautiful 😍with amazing staff. My room was equally amazing; I can dare say it superseded my expectations 🙌. The hotel’s location is also perfect as it’s close to the bus station, lots of hotels, a bank and a twenty minutes walk from a beautiful street lined with malls.
City tour: For about 4 hours, we got into exploring the streets and two museum’s. The museum’s were Guangdong Folk Arts Museum and The Museum of the Nanyue King of Western Han Dynasty. We also got to see an electric car refill station. It was so exciting to also find out the bus we were riding on was electric⚡!!! Technology is really cool. Here are some few tickets I took as souvenirs 🙈
Roam the streets of Uptown Guangzhou: After my nap I decided to walk around as I waited for my airport transfer. I was trying to find a shop selling Lenovo phone covers because it’s been a sport getting one here😭. I didn’t find any but got to enjoy the metro buses and get into one of their huuuuuge and beautiful mall😍. The metro card was given by the airline and gave me free metro bus rides for 24hours🚌.
Stay at Oubon International Hotel: If you thought the first hotel was cool wait till you see the second hotel. The biggest highlight for me was the bathrooms glass walls 🙌. I spent almost 40 minutes marveling, soaking in the hot water and enjoying the room and sunset view. I had literally never seen anything of the sort👻.
Roam the streets of downtown Guangzhou: It greatly helped that the Oubon hotel was right next to everything. I walked less than five minutes and found a whole street with affordable shops🏯. I bought a couple of cute little pieces and then roamed around to look for food🍝. After covering a bit of a distance I decided to just eat in the KFC next to the hotel. After dinner, I watched a street show with a crazy guy passing fire over his skin🔥. I don’t how he did it but he even put fire into his mouth for a couple of minutes and removed the piece of wood still on fire🙆.
After watching the beautiful show, I went had my long shower 🧖 and napped as I waited for pick up. The ride to the airport was fairly sad as I had to report to work three hours after landing 😫. I however comforted myself since atleast I had some beautiful memories to fantasize on😆.
I hope you enjoyed this read. It is the last of my dream come true Indonesia trip💃. It is also a favorite since I had a bonus country ticked off my #Journeyto159 list.😝 See you in two weeks as I share with you one of my favorite spots in Rongai💕.
Come with me on a budget! 