Oily grey and second only to the Yangzi in importance as an industrial channel, the Pearl River (Zhu Jiang) forms one of China's busiest waterways, continually active with ferries and barges loaded down with coal and stone. Its name comes from a legend about a monk named Jiahu who lost a glowing pearl in its waters, and although it shone on the riverbed night after night, nobody was ever able to recover it. The five-kilometre-long stretch east from Shamian offers fine views of Guangzhou's busy waterfront, flanked by ever-higher buildings, terminating with Ershadao , the largest of the river's mid-stream islands. Now earmarked for commercial development, Ershadao also houses the city's former boat dwellers - outcasts who lived on the Pearl River until Liberation, forbidden to settle ashore or marry anyone who lived on land - in a purpose-built estate known as New Riverside Village.

 

Several river trips - including the boat to Lianhua Shan - depart daily from Xiti Wharf , roughly opposite the Customs House on Yanjiang Lu, the best of which is a night cruise (¥38; includes ¥20's worth of ingredients for a hotpot dinner); it's popular, so buy a ticket and check departure times in the early afternoon. Seated downstairs at the karaoke bar, or eating your meal on the upper deck, you sit back and watch the lights of the city slip slowly past your table. It all lasts about two hours, taking you past the White Swan Hotel and then back under Renmin Bridge, past Haizhu Bridge and down to the grand Guangzhou suspension bridge at the far end of Ershadao, from where on a clear moonless night you can see the lights of international freighters riding at anchor far downstream in Huangpu . This was the site of a Military Academy during the 1920s where Mao studied under Chiang Kaishek, his future arch enemy and leader of the Guomindang.