It’s been a couple of years since my last visit to Guangzhou. Honestly, I was never very impressed with the city. Though the city obviously has a lot of history, there’s very little that remains of that, and I found it generally uninspiring. But, on my recent revisit I was surprised to see how much Guangzhou has changed. The Asian Games 2010 held in Guangzhou have left their mark and generally in a very positive way. You can feel the city is cleaner, more organized and that there’s a general vibe of renewal.
One of the symbols of that renewal is the Zhujiang New Town area where dozens of new skyscrapers and buildings suddenly sprung up. Walking around that area is a bit overwhelming, to witness what a Chinese city can accomplish in 2 years is just mindblowing. I’ve never seen such growth anywhere else in the world.
At the heart of the Zhujiang New Town is the new Guangdong Museum. To those claiming China as a creative wasteland and architecturally dull I would suggest visiting the Zhujiang New Town and have look at the array of the amazing new structures, beginning from the Guangdong Museum.
Many things you can about this building, but dull and ordinary isn’t one of them.
Naturally, I had to go have a look inside…
As you can see, it has a feeling of grandeur to it.
Here’s a quick intro from their official website :
Guangdong Museum,a comprehensive museum with collection of over 160,000 pieces (sets),was open to the public on October 1st, 1959. In 2003, the People’s Government of Guangdong Province decided to build a new building for Guangdong Museum in Zhujiang New Town, Guangzhou. On May 18th , 2010, the brand-new Guangdong Museum started to welcome visitors. The new building covers an area of 41,027㎡ with construction area of 66,980㎡ and display area of 21,000㎡. It looks like a delicate ancient openwork container of treasures. Permanent exhibitions in terms of Guangdong History and Culture, Guangdong Natural Resource and arts (such as the Duan inkstone, Chaozhou Woodcarving and Pottery and Porcelain) as well as temporary exhibitions are exhibited in it. Furthermore, perfect infrastructure and management systems will enable the Guangdong Museum to be a modernized large-scale comprehensive museum, top-ranking in the nation and advanced in the world.
Sounds promising. So seeing as there’s English everywhere, I went in for the exhibitions. Some of them, I have to hand it to the Guangzhouians – are top notch. Like this next one …
Or this exhibition…
Not too shabby, is it?
And even the ground floor gift shop area had a few things to keep me busy…
Plenty more to show from that area to soon follow. If you’re in Guangzhou, make sure you come witness the power and speed of Chinese growth.