What to Buy in Guangzhou (广州)

Guangzhou is China's millennium-old trading port (千年商都) — two thousand years of merchants sailing in and out of the Pearl River Delta, and a shopping culture built on one unshakeable rule: food first. Visitors do not come here for generic souvenirs; they come to eat their way down two great pedestrian streets and carry the flavors home.

The edible strategy is simple. Stock up on Cantonese lap mei (preserved meats flavored with rose wine), Xinhui dried tangerine peel for teas and soups, and pastries from the century-old teahouses — wife cakes and chicken biscuits travel well and cost little. Try a cup of fresh-brewed liangcha herbal tea while you are here; take the sealed cans home as gifts.

For crafts, Guangcai painted porcelain is the signature buy: blank porcelain fired in Jingdezhen, hand-painted in Guangzhou for over 300 years in vivid colors and gold. Calligraphy lovers can look at Duan inkstones near their source. The two shopping anchors are Beijing Road Pedestrian Street in Yuexiu District — the modern downtown strip — and Shangxiajiu Pedestrian Street in Liwan District, the old Cantonese arcade street where the food brands cluster.