Guangzhou

Finished in 2010, the 600-metre tower twists in at the waist, so you can pick it out from anywhere across the river. The slow wheel of capsules round the outside of the top costs extra over the basic deck, and its line is longest around sunset.

Chens from seventy-two counties of Guangdong paid for this academy, finished in 1894. It is a folk crafts museum now, and the thing to see is on the roof: every ridge is crowded with ceramic figures acting out operas, so you crane upward from the courtyard.

A sandbank filled in around 1859 and split as a concession, four-fifths British and one-fifth French. Banks and consulates from that time line up under the banyan shade. Only a narrow channel lies between it and the rest of town, crossed on foot by bridge.

It looks like any street of clothes shops, but glass panels are let into the pavement down its centre. Under them, road surfaces laid over several dynasties show in layers, proof that the street has sat in this spot for over a thousand years.

The Five Rams statue, which stands for the city's name, has been on this hill since 1959. On the same rise, the five-storey red Zhenhai Tower was first built in 1380 to guard the northern tip of the old wall. Mornings fill the paths with tai chi.

Built over the tomb of Zhao Mo, second king of Nanyue, which turned up on a building site in 1983. The showpiece is his burial suit of 2,291 jade plaques sewn with silk thread. Steps lead down so you can go inside the stone chambers themselves.

The hills sit right against the north of the city, so the metro takes you to their foot. Moxing Ling, the top at 382 metres, takes about two hours on foot, and a cable car lifts you halfway in minutes. In clear weather the city spreads south without end.

Qilou, shophouses whose upper floors reach over the pavement to keep off rain, run the length of Enning Road. In the Yongqingfang lanes behind them is the old Bruce Lee family house, and the Cantonese Opera museum next door has a garden for a pause.

Every evening boats leave Tianzi Pier, sail on to the Canton Tower and turn back. They go out to catch the towers on both banks with their lights on, so the sailings about an hour after sunset are the ones worth taking.

A Daoist temple in Foshan, the next city over, linked to Guangzhou by metro. Memorial halls to Wong Fei-hung and Ip Man share the grounds, and lion dances take the courtyard stage several times daily. The timetable is posted at the gate; check it first.

Begun in 1863, it took 25 years. Walls and twin spires are all granite, so locals call it Shishi, the Stone House. Yide Road round it is a wholesale market for dried seafood and toys, and on weekdays you thread between handcarts to the door.

Zaha Hadid modelled it on two river pebbles, and it opened in 2010: the large stone holds the main theatre, the small one a multipurpose hall. It sits in Zhujiang New Town facing the Canton Tower across the river, and the plaza round it needs no ticket.

A square block modelled on a lacquered treasure box, opened in 2010 east of Huacheng Square. It covers Guangdong's history and nature, and the gilded Chaozhou woodcarving hall holds people longest. The Opera House stands opposite and the two pair up.

A Qing official built this garden in his home district of Panyu in 1871; it is one of Guangdong's four famous gardens. Ponds, pavilions and corridors are packed into a small plot, so each doorway opens a new scene. About an hour south of the centre by metro.

Sun Yat-sen founded the academy on Changzhou Island in 1924, with Chiang Kai-shek its first commandant. The school buildings standing now are a memorial rebuilt to the old plan. It is an island, and the small ferry from Yuzhu pier is the pleasant way in.

An octagonal hall finished in 1931 under blue glazed tiles, where Sun Yat-sen kept his presidential office. Not one pillar holds up the roof inside, so none of the roughly 3,000 seats has a blocked view. Yuexiu Park's gate is right behind it.

A local saying holds that the temple stood before the city did. Huineng, the Sixth Patriarch of Chan, had his head shaved under its bodhi tree in 676, and a small pagoda over his buried hair still stands in the grounds.