Friday, 26 December 2025

Guangzhou-HK Day 2: Guangdong Museum & Canton Tower Plaza

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We woke up and headed to the Horizon Club for our breakfast.

View of the river in the morning
There wasn't a table big enough for our family so we had to split up;
the Littlest and I took the table by the window.
Bread and hot food
Fruits
Interesting honey dispenser and juicer for fresh orange juice every morning!
My choice of breakfast, which included beef noodles and omelette from the ala carte menu
Wanton noodles from the ala carte menu
I had yogurt everyday because it was so good! (left);
Pancakes from the ala carte menu (right).

We definitely over-ordered but we couldn't resist trying everything on the menu as they all looked so good! 😅

After breakfast, we hailed a 6-seater DiDi (CN¥66) to Guangdong Museum 广东省博物馆, which was just 15 minutes away. 

Waiting for our DiDi at the lobby

Entry to the museum was FREE for all visitors but you'd need to scan a QR code with your WeChat App to book a slot before entering (closed on Monday)!

We have arrived at Guangdong Museum
The building was designed to look like an ancient, metallic treasure chest or jewellery box
Huge central entry area
3D map of Guangdong
Exploring the exhibits
Learning about Guangdong's nature environments
Crystal and other precious stones found in Guangdong
Beautiful stone sculpture that caught my eye
We found out that the Jade Chicken was a highlight of the Guangdong Museum;
The jade carving was incredibly realistic!
Marine animal hall
Felt like the natural history museums we've visited
(the most recent being Manila)
Dinosaur bones
Traditional Chinese interior
Interactive screens
More exhibits

We spent about 1.5 hours exploring the museum! It was really educational for the kids! When we left we saw the Canton Tower 广州塔 in the distance and took pictures with it.

View of the Canton Tower from Guangdong Museum

Since it was nearby, we hailed a 6-seater DiDi (CN¥48) to the tower, and decided to spend time shopping at Canton Tower Plaza before buying tickets for the tower.

Canton Tower Plaza
Sanrio Gift Gate and Pop Mart

We initially planned to have lunch at Shang Dian Dim Sum restaurant but it was no longer in operation! The Hubby decided on Chua Lam's Dim Sum 蔡澜点心 instead.

Menu of authentic Cantonese cuisine
Restaurant was quiet because it was past the lunch hours
Roast pigeon was one of their signature dishes
Beef and prawn claypot
Barbeque pork buns were also the highlight and my favourite food! (left);
Mango pudding for the Eldest (right).

After a satisfying lunch, we continued our shopping!

Bought a cute luggage at OCE
Shopped at our favourite shop, TopToy!
The Eldest got the biggest keychain from a blind box 😅
Bought winter clothes for the kids from Xiong Mao as they were having a big sale!
Free gifts with minimum spend

We had spent so much time shopping that by the time we wanted to buy tickets for the bubble tram, they were sold out until 8pm! We decided to return another day instead and took a 6-seater Didi (CN¥58) to our hotel for evening canapes.

Got a sofa table by the window
My plate of colourful snacks

After our canapes, we brought the kids to the indoor pool for a swim.

Entrance to the pool
Small bathrobes for little kids (left);
Lounging by the pool (right).
The pool was a good size!
Jacuzzi was super cold! Not warm at all!

After our swim, the Boy was feeling hungry so the Hubby, Boy and I walked to the nearest McDonald's to buy food just before it closed at 10pm! Super lucky! 😅

Photo with the Shangri-La Guangzhou signboard
Crossing the bridge to Element 6 Mall
McDonald's at Element 6

The walk was about 2.5km so I managed to clock 20k steps for the day and hit all my fitness goals! 😄


Continue to >> Guangzhou-Hong Kong Day 3: Guangzhou Cultural Centre & Shangxiajiu Street
<< Back to Guangzhou-Hong Kong Day 1: Shangri-La Guangzhou Horizon Club & Tianhe City

~~~~~~

Visit MADPSYCHMUM TRAVELS for the rest of my posts on 
Guangzhou & Hong Kong, China as well as other travel itineraries!


Please also follow my travel adventures on Instagram via the hashtag #madpsychmumtravels!
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Thursday, 25 December 2025

Guangzhou-HK Day 1: Shangri-La Guangzhou Horizon Club & Tianhe City

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Incredibly, this was my 10th vacation for the year! I've done 5 flights (BJ-SH, HCMC, Cebu, Manila, Busan-Seoul), 2 ferries journeys (Batam, Bintan) and 2 short road trips (Malacca, JB) this year! 🤭

We booked our Singapore Airlines tickets in June 2025 because the Hubby spontaneously suggested a trip in December to countdown to the new year. As it was the super peak period, we decided on Guangzhou and Hong Kong because the multi-city tickets were the cheapest at S$586 per adult and S$447 per child (inclusive of seat selection). Incidentally, this would be the last child fare for the Boy! 😆

The whole family woke up excitedly at 5am on Christmas morning to board our usual maxi cab to Changi Airport Terminal 3.

We love travelling via our usual driver's maxi cab as it's super spacious!
Disney-themed decorations to promote Disney Adventure cruise!
Disney Christmas trees
Playing at a playground during transit

Coincidentally, my colleague was also at T3 at around the same time! Her flight to Shanghai was about 1 hour earlier than ours so we met up at the transit area! 😄

We headed to our gate when it was time to board our plane and departed Singapore at 8.05am as scheduled. Although we had complimentary seat selection (as we were travelling with a child), we could only get separate individual seats in the system! This meant that my kids had to sit alone, which made no sense so I wrote in to Singapore Airlines to highlight the issue. After some negotiation, I managed to get seats with my two younger kids while the Eldest, Hubby and Mum sat individually.

Alone with my 2 younger kids
Kids meal for the Littlest
The Boy was old enough and didn't need me much 😀

It was a pretty smooth flight and after flying for about 4 hours, we arrived at Baiyun International Airport Terminal 2 at 12pm (no time difference between Singapore & China).

Welcome to Guangzhou!

There was a long queue at customs so by the time we were done, we had worked up an appetite. We spotted a McDonald's in the corner and decided to have lunch. We do love eating at McDonald's all around the world (London, Melbourne, Sydney, Melaka, Bali, Dubai, Cebu, just to name a few).  

McDonald's at Baiyun Airport
Using the self-ordering kiosk to buy our beef burgers
Interesting flavours that were different from Singapore!

After lunch, we hailed a premium 6-seater DiDi (CN¥320) to our hotel.

Walked to the Car Hailing Pick-up Point to board our DiDi

Thankfully the car was so huge that it was able to contain most of our luggage in the boot!

Spacious seats

We would be staying at Shangri-La Hotel Guangzhou (our 5th Shangri-la stay this year! 🤭).

Shangri-La Hotel building can be seen from the bridge
A super huge Christmas tree made up of bears greeted us on arrival!

We checked in at the Horizon Lounge as we had booked 2 Horizon Deluxe Rooms via the Shangri-la app at $299 per room per night (inclusive of breakfast, evening canapés, all-day lounge access and other Horizon Club benefits).

Horizon Club floor
Our room with a king bed
Large bathroom with bathtub;
You can watch TV while soaking in the bathtub!
Huge bathtub
Dressing table and coffee machine
View from our room window
If you look closely, there's a gokart track on the roof of the building next door (left);
Complimentary fruits (right).
Complimentary candy
Shangri-La kindly added a complimentary single bed for the Boy, who was more than excited that he did not have to share a bed!

The hotel had the usual Shangri-La amenities such as a spa, gym, both indoor and outdoor pools and even tennis courts!

Good size gym
Indoor pool
Outdoor pools were closed during winter

It was time for our evening canapes at Horizon Lounge at 5pm.

We got a table with a great view
View of the Pearl River 珠江 from our table
Cheeses, fruits and hot food
Nicely decorated pastries
Bread and alcohol
Although the food was good, it was definitely not as good as China World Hotel in Beijing
You can actually see the Canton Tower 广州塔 from the Horizon Club Lounge!

We left our hotel at 6.30pm via premium 6-seater DiDi (CN¥69) to Tee Mall at Tianhe City (next to Sheraton Hotel Guangzhou).

Shangri-la Hotel was fully lighted up with changing lights at night! (left)
The nearest station is Pudong Railway Station (right)
Photos at the lobby while waiting for our DiDi

As it was the peak hour, our ride to the mall took us longer than expected due to the congestion. Our destination was a popular shopping district and super crowded when we were there! Likely because it was Christmas Day! 😅

Tee Mall
Interesting shops with cute merchandise
Activity sticker packs were so cheap that I bought many of them for the Littlest!
Aeon supermarket

We were hungry after all the shopping but we could not find a restaurant that wasn't crowded! There were long queues everywhere so we decided to leave the mall and search the streets for a quieter restaurant. We approached a quiet street and spotted Nemeida Pizza.

Nemeida Pizza

Food was pretty good; my Boy loved the pizza! 😋

With our stomachs filled, we hailed a premium 6-seater DiDi (CN¥78.50) back to our hotel to rest for the night! Looking forward to exploring more of Guangzhou! 😄


MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

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P.S: We're proud Shangri-la Circle members; read about our Shangri-La experiences around the world:

Continue to >> Guangzhou-Hong Kong Day 2: Guangdong Museum & Canton Tower Plaza

~~~~~~

Visit MADPSYCHMUM TRAVELS for the rest of my posts on Guangzhou & Hong Kong, China as well as other travel itineraries!


Please also follow my travel adventures on Instagram via the hashtag #madpsychmumtravels!
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