Guangzhou

Guangzhou has been trading with the outside world for two thousand years and it shows: in the arcaded shophouses of Xiguan, the European villas on Shamian Island, the ancestral halls paid for by emigrants who did well abroad. It is a big city that does not feel like one once you are inside the old districts.

The day starts early here. Morning tea, which means dim sum and a pot of something, runs from seven until early afternoon and is the city's social institution. Do it once in a grand old teahouse and once in a neighbourhood place where the trolleys come to the table.

The climate is the thing to plan around. Summers are hot, wet and long, with typhoons from July to September. October to December is dry and mild and the best time to walk.

Baiyun (CAN) is 30 kilometres north; metro line 3 reaches the centre in about 45 minutes. Guangzhou South is the high-speed hub, far to the south on metro lines 2 and 7: Hong Kong West Kowloon is under an hour, Guilin about two and a half, Changsha two and a half, Shanghai seven and a half. The old Guangzhou station in the centre is for slower trains.

Morning tea (yum cha): shrimp dumplings, siu mai, rice rolls, egg tarts and a pot of pu'er, from seven until about two. Then wonton noodles in a thin egg-noodle nest, roast goose, claypot rice with cured sausage in winter, and double-skin milk pudding for dessert. Cantonese cooking is mild and precise; the point is the ingredient, not the sauce.