Guangzhou Transportation
Getting there
By Air
GUANGZHOU BAIYUN Airport (CAN), located between Baiyun District and Huadu District, has come into service since 2004. 17 kilometers (10.6 miles) away from the old airport and 28 kilometers (17.4 miles) from the center of Guangzhou City. The BAIYUN Airport can handle more than 10 thousand throughput per day, covering 120 domestic and international airlines, among which 86 are domestic flights between Guangzhou and major Chinese cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Xian. It takes at most 15 hours from Guangzhou to the major cities around the world, like Los Angeles, Paris, Amsterdam, Melbourne, Sydney and Lagos.
Get to the airport:
1. Take subway: The No. 3 subway can take you there costing only half an hour.
2. By shuttle buses: The coach buses are available for travelers from other cities of Guangdong to the airport every one hour. Coach buses from the Zhuhai, Dongguan, Shunde and some other cities are available from 5:45 in the morning to 20:20 in the evening.
3. By bus: There are 10 bus lines from the city center to the airport costing at most 20 minutes.
Line 1 Route: Flight Ticket Office at Railway Station to Airport (Fare: CNY 16, Available: 05:00-24:00)
Line 2 Route: Guangzhou Transportation Building to Airport ( Fare: CNY 22 Available: 05:30-22:30 )
Line 3 Route: Fangcun Station to Airport (Fare: CNY 19, Available: 05:30-22:30 )
Line 4 Route: Guangzhou Pearl Garden Hotel to Airport (Fare: CNY 28, Available: 06:00-21:00 )
Line 5 Route: GuangDong Globe-link Hotel to Airport (Fare: CNY 20, Available: 05:40-22:00 )
Line 6 Route: GuangDong CITIC Plaza to Airport (Fare : CNY 20, Available: 05:30-22:30 )
Line 7 Route: Poonyu Bridge to Airport (Fare: CNY 32, Available: 05:30-21:00 )
Line 8 Route: GuangDong Tseng-ch'eng to Airport (Fare: CNY 31, Available: 05:50-18:30 )
Line 9 Route: GuangDong Chun-wai Metro Plaza to Airport (Fare: CNY 8, Available: 06:30-22:20)
Line 10 Route: GuangDong Foshan to Airport (Fare: CNY 20, Available: 05:00-21:00)
Airport Inquiry Number: 36066999 (The service works in Mandarin, Cantonese and English.)
By Train
Guangzhou is one of the most important traffic hubs equipped with the sophisticated railway system, consisting of three passenger railway stations. Travelers form Guangzhou can travel around any Chinese major cities by train, like Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Sanya Hainan, Yunnan, Wuhan Hubei, Changsha Hunan, Xiamen, Fujian, Xian and Tianjin etc.
The Guangzhou Railway Station located in the Yuexiu District, via which the passengers can travel to Guangzhou from Beijing, Zhuhai Guangdong, Shenzhen Guangdong and Wuhan Hubei. Take the subway No. 2 and 5 or by bus No. 30, 31, 52, 180, 201, 210, 211, 228, B10, 254, 257, 257, B2, B2A, 552, 803, 805, 807A can get there directly. Hotline: 020-61357222, 86661789 and 86682043.
The Guangzhou East Railway Station located in the Tianhe District, via which the passengers can travel to Kowloon Hong Kong from Beijing and to Guangzhou from Shenzhen Guangdong. Take the subway No. 1 and 3 or by the bus B19, 41, 43, 45, 62, 122, 122A, 175, 183, 185, 195, 209, 214, 233, 256, 263, 302, 302A can get there directly. Hotline: 020-61346222.
The Guangzhou South Railway Station located in the Poonyu District, and will be in operation during the spring of the 2011 after being reconstructed. This new railway mainly service for the passengers from Wuhan Hubei or Zhuhai and Shenzhen to Guangzhou. By subway No. 2, No. 7 and No. 12 and bus No. 288, 301, 302, 303, and 309 can get there directly.
Tips:
1. The allowance weigh of luggage by train is 10 kg for each child and 20 kg for each adult.
2. The train ticket is sold 10d days in advance, that is to say, you can buy the ticket 10 days before the date you go to travel.
3. The ticket is valid 3 days after the train left, which means that when you miss the train or cancel your travel, you can get a refund for the ticket in three days after the train left.
4. Compensation fare should by paid if your loss your ticket before or after you board the train. If you find your ticket after boarding and paying the compensation fare, find the train conductor to get back your money which will be deducted the procedure fee.
By Road
The travel by road between any Chinese major cities and Guangzhou becomes convenient and cozy, because well-developed expressways, viaducts, tunnels under the river have been constructed over the whole country. If you plan to travel to other Chinese cities like Guilin, Shenzhen, Hong Kong etc, express buses are easy to get in Guangzhou Bus Stations.
Guangdong Provincial Long-distance Bus Station
Location: No. 145-149, West Huanshi Road, Guangzhou. The bus No. 254, 805, 823, 31, 7, 225, 46, 175, and 20 can get there the directly.
Buses from here are generally bound for Hunan, Jiangxi, Fujian and cities in Guangdong Province.
Yuexiu South Bus Station
Location: Yuexiu District, Guangzhou. The bus No. 7, 11, 12, 16, 35, 36, 54, 61, 65, 80, 101, 104, 125, 182, 184, 194, 264, 519 and 541 can get there directly.
Buses leave for Guilin, Jiangxi, Nanjing, and Zhengzhou.
Tianhe Bus Station
Location: No. 633, Yanling Road, Guangzhou. The bus No. 28, 39, 46, 54, 65, 84, 126, 135, 235, 290, 564, 236, 252, 257, 297, 534, 535 and 884 can get there directly.
Buses leave for Hunan, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Guizhou and Jiangsu.
The first Tourist Bus Line between Guangzhou and Hong Kong Disneyland has been opened. Now tourists can get to Hong Kong Disneyland from Yitai Square, North Liberation Road of Guangzhou.
Getting Around
Taxi
In Guangzhou the taxi is easy to get, and there are five colors of taxi, namely the silver, the red, the green, the golden and the yellow. The fares is unified as the following table.
| Flag-down Fare (CNY) | Over 2.3km (CNY)/km | |
| Daytime (6:30am-11:pm) | 7 | 2.6/km |
Note: Every time you take the cab, near or far, CNY 1 is required to pay as the Bunker Adjustment Factor. The fare at night is higher.
Public City Bus
Guangzhou is furnished with a sophisticated bus system that is generally self-service ticketing. The fare is CNY 1 or CNY 2, and you have to prepare the coins or smackers of CNY.
Subway
The Guangzhou subway system is planed to develop to 600 kilometers based on the existed 236 km.
Subway Line 1: From Xilang of Fangcun District in southwest Guangzhou to the East Railway Station. Ticket fares: CNY 2 to 8.
Subway Line 2: From Guangzhou Railway Station to Pazhou of Haizhu District. Ticket fares: CNY 2 to 8.
Subway Line 3: Line A is from the Panyu Square to the Guangzhou East Railway Station; and line B starts from Tianhe Bus Station and meets line A at the west Tiyu Road station.
Subway Line 4: Line 4 starts from the Jinzhou station in Nansha District, and meets line 2 at the Wanshengwei Station in Haizhu District.
Subway Line 5: Line 5 starts from the Jiaokou Station in Fangcun District to Wenchong Station in Huangpu District.
Subway Line 8: Line 8 starts from the Phoenix Village Station in Fangcun District to Wanshengwei Station in Haizhu District.
Tips: Taking the subway, coins are required to buy tickets in the self-service ticket machine. You can get coins at a ticket booth, the bank or a coin machine.
BRT
A new transportation system BRT(Bus Rapid Transit) has been in operation since February 10, 2010. The Guangzhou BRT system covers the Tinahe Sports Center in the west to the Xiayuan of Huangpu District in the east. BRT is a kind of traffic system introduced from Brazil, which is similar to the subway in the passengers boarding procedure, so it is duded the subway on the ground.
There are 51 BRT lines in Guangzhou among which 10 are in operation in the rush hour namely B3A, B3B, B3C,B4, B5, B6, B13, B14, B18 and B23. What's more, the BRT lines on the ground are BRT only. Can you image how convenient is it?
The BRT system is self-service ticketing and the ticket fares are unified as CNY 2, so you have to prepare the coins or smackers of CNY.
By Boat
Pearl River Night Cruise is an impressive sightseeing in Guangzhou. The Pearl River consists of three branches and the confluence is marvelously beautiful under the shining of the neon lights at night, so tourist like to enjoy the nightlife on boat.
Along the Pearl River scene there are 8 sightseeing spots called 'Yang Cheng Eight", namely red hills rising sun, sea beads loyalty, Yuexiu view, Shuangqiaoshan misty rain, East Lake Chunxiao, Baiyun Songtao etc, which costs 2 hours to enjoy.
You can start your journey from three docks.
Tianzi Dock in the Yuexiu District: Take the bus No. 1, 57, 64, 183, 194, 219, 281 and 54 to get there directly.
Xidi Dock in west River Road: Take the bus No. 31, 38, 181, 186, 202, 217, 219, 227, 251, 236, 239, 288, 281, 527, 538, 541, 556 and 823 to get there directly.
Dashatou Dock in the east River Road: Take the bus No. , 12, 18, 36, 44, 57, 61, 80, 89, 125, 128, 131, 182, 184, 188, 192, 194, 208, 277, 287, 543 and 546 to get there directly.
