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! πŸ˜†

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! πŸ˜„

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 πŸ˜€

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 canapΓ©s, 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 εΉΏε·žε‘” 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! πŸ˜…

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! πŸ˜‹

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! πŸ˜„


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-HK Day 2: Guangdong Museum & Canton Tower Plaza

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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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