Nansha-Guangzhou (China)

Guangzhou-Nansha is a Pearl River cruise port and South China's largest container (cargo) port. City's neighbours are Macao and Hong Kong. It has population over 11,5 million (metro over 44 million), ranking it the largest in Southern China. Among Guangzhou City's main tourist attractions are:

• Guangxiao Temple (city's oldest)
• Canton Tower (world's 3rd tallest, after Tokyo Skytree and Shanghai Tower)
• Huaisheng Mosque (China's oldest)
• Sha Mian (Shameen) Island, where foreign traders used to live
• Six-Banyan Temple (aka Flower Pagoda, 1000 Buddha Pagoda) from early-6th century AD
• In Yuexiu Park are located Yat-sen (14th-century watchtower), Statue of Five Rams, and Seaman's Pavilion.

Guangzhou became part of China in the 3rd century BC. Merchants from Arabia, India, Persia and other Asian countries traded here for centuries before Portugueses' arrival in the early-16th century. They were followed (17th century) by British merchants, and in the 18th century - by Dutch and French traders.

In 1842, Guangzhou became treaty port (seaport cities in China and Japan opened to foreign trade by unequal treaties with the western empires). In 1946, the city was returned to China. During WW2 (1939-1945), Guangzhou was occupied by Japan and heavily damaged.

Guangzhou cruise port Nansha

Port Guangzhou has a total of 4600 berths (designated mooring locations), 133 buoys and 2359 anchorages. The port can handle ships with DWT (deadweight tonnage) up to 3,000 tons. It provides a wide range of maritime services, including loading / discharging, warehousing, storage, logistics, containerized cargo and passenger services. Most of the shipped goods are agricultural and industrial products, including crude oil, coal, ore, steel, chemicals, automobiles, grain.

Large cruise ships to Guangzhou dock at Nansha Port. This is city's "seaport" located on Longxue Island (at Pearl River's west bank). Nansha Terminal is in Pearl River Delta's center, bordering to the south with South China Sea, to the east with Shenzhen, and to the west with Nanhai, Panyu, Shunde.

Nansha Port is city's (and the entire Guangzhou-Foshan industrial area's) only connection to the Pacific Ocean. All major Pearl River Delta cities are within a 100 km (60 mi) radius from Nansha Port, making it their connecting hub for cargo shipping and cruise ship traffic. The combined cargo and passenger traffic from Nansha is served by an advanced highway and waterway network.

In June 2017, Genting Cruise Lines (Genting Hong Kong / GHK's travel division) signed an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with Asia's largest airline - China Southern Airlines, for fly-cruise partnership in China. Under the agreement, both parties work to develop Guangzhou as a world-class travel hub and homeport for cruise ships, offering convenient and discount priced "flight and cruise" travel deals. Genting Cruise Lines consists of 2 brands - Dream Cruises (premium) and Star Cruises (budget). Genting and China Southern Airlines combined their vast resources in sales, marketing and promotions in order to create competitive travel products (like the new "Air Cruise Travel" program) targeting both groups and individual travellers.

In 2017, Nansha-Guangzhou port received 122 homeport calls (roundtrip cruise itineraries). Main domestic sources for cruise ship tourists are the provinces Guangdong, Hunan, Hubei, Guangxi Zhuang, Sichuan, Chongqing.

In 2017, Port Nansha handled 13,94 million TEUs (containers). Gantry cranes can move TEUs stacked 55 m high and 24 boxes wide. Turn time is 30 min. The seaport is accessed via 36 gates. It can handle even the world's biggest boxships (largest handled so far is 18,000 TEUs).

Since 2018, Guangshengang XRL (Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link) - high-speed railway - connects Beijing with Hong Kong (Kowloon Station) via Guangzhou andShenzhen. The largest cities connected to Hong Kong via HSR (without interchange) also include Changsha, Guiyang, Wuhan and Nanning.

In 2019, the cruise port handled 52 ship calls and ~265,000 passengers.

Guangzhou Tower

Canton Tower (aka Guangzhou Tower) is the city's TV and Sightseeing Tower, with height 595,7 m (1954 ft) and building cost of USD 450 million. This multi-purpose observation tower was finished in 2009 and is operational since September 2010. It was inaugurated for the 2010 Asian Games (aka XVI Asiad) held in Guangzhou City between November 12-27, 2010.

In 2010, Guangzhou Tower became world's tallest tower, until surpassed by the Tokyo Skytree (height 634 m / 2080 ft, building cost USD 806 million) in February 2012. It was also China's tallest structure until surpassed by the Shanghai Tower (height 632 m / 2073 ft, cost to build USD 2,4 billion) in August 2013. As of 2017, Guangzhou Tower is the world's 3rd tallest tower (after Tokyo Skytree and Shanghai Tower) and the world's 5th-tallest freestanding structure. "488 Look Out" is located at the antenna mast (at height of 488 m / 1601 ft), ranking it the world's highest outdoor observation deck. From here, visitors can enjoy the 360-degree panoramic view of Guangzhou City. This unique venue is the best place for taking photos of the city, especially for night photography.

Bubble Tram is a horizontal Ferris Wheel encircling at the top of Canton Tower at height of 455 m (1493 ft). This ranks it the world’s highest Ferris Wheel. Bubble Tram consists of a total of 16 spherical cabins, each rotating along the slanted track (at a 15-degree slope to the tower structure). From these "bubble cabins" visitors can enjoy the scenic Guangzhou City views.

Nansha-Guangzhou cruise terminal