"Baby, you buy my oyster," shouts a smiling man as we stroll through a steaming, sizzling and occasionally smelly labyrinth of street eats at Huifu Snack Street. The baby in question is my ravenous 10-year-old son, and he happily acquiesces, slurping down the garlicy barbecued delights, along with a tray of local hairy-mitten crabs for good measure. His 8-year-old sister, less inclined to adventurous eating, is wooed by an equally chirpy vendor touting waffles piled with fruit and ice-cream. They both leave the market with full bellies, smiling faces and high fives from the friendly vendors, already feeling very at home in Guangzhou.
China's third largest metropolis, with a population of 14 million, the city formerly known as Canton has become one of the world's fastest-growing tourist hubs. This is in no small part due to its easy accessibility (just 50 minutes from Hong Kong by high-speed train), world-class museums, a thriving arts and culture scene, some of the warmest people in China, and that fabled Cantonese cuisine.
China's City of Flowers is also surprisingly green — both literally and figuratively. At Litchi Bay Park, we punt around a pretty tangle of creeks and lakes past ancestral halls and lovely open spaces. There's a buzz of activity as smiling locals bounce hacky sacks from foot to foot, bat shuttlecocks back and forth, peddle homemade sweets and practice tai chi to a soundtrack of amateur Chinese Opera.
Shamian Island — once a base for British and French colonial powers and the trade of opium — is another gorgeous, green surprise with atmospheric, tree-lined pedestrian avenues, grand colonial buildings and a quirky statue trail where my squealing children devour planet-sized cotton candy.
