Private Historical Tour: Guangzhou City Sightseeing Including Lunch

Recommended by 92% of travelers

Guangzhou, China

8 hours (approx.)
Pickup offered
Group discounts
Mobile ticket
Offered in: English

Overview

Explore important cultural sites in the city of Guangzhou (formerly Canton) on a full-day sightseeing tour with a knowledgeable private guide. Travel by private vehicle and on foot to go in-depth on visits to Chen Clan Temple and the Guangdong Folk Art Museum on-site, the Mausoleum of the Nanyue King, Six Banyan Temple and Shamian Island. Your tour includes informative commentary from your guide, along with lunch at a Chinese-style lunch, and hotel pickup and drop-off.

Venture to the royal tomb at the Mausoleum of the Nanyue King and find evidence of the ancient city
View enormous Buddhist statues and the Flower Pagoda at Six Banyan Temple
Enjoy a traditional Cantonese lunch at a local restaurant
Round-trip hotel transport by comfortable private vehicle included

What's Included

Professional English-speaking tour guide
Hotel pickup and drop-off
Transport by private, air-conditioned vehicle
Chinese-style lunch
Professional driver
Admission tickets

Gratuities
Food and drinks, unless specified
Cruise port pickup and drop-off

Meeting and Pickup

Pickup points

Select a pickup point

Pickup details

Departure Point: Departs from your Guangzhou hotels Dates: Daily Return point: Returns to original departure point

Operating hours
.8:00 am

Itinerary

After morning pickup from your Guangzhou hotel, your guide takes you to your first destination, the Chen Clan Temple.

Built in the 1890s for ancestral worship, the Chen Clan Temple features fine wood, brick and ivory carvings and elaborate interior beams and columns. The building now houses the Guangdong Folk Art Museum, which displays examples of superb Cantonese craftsmanship, such as traditional Chinese ink and embroidery designs, rare prints and ceramics.

Next up, travel in your private vehicle to the Mausoleum of the Nanyue King. Situated on Xianggang Hill, the Nanyue Royal Tomb sits 65 feet (20 meters) underground. Its seven chambers are filled with more than 1,000 burial artifacts. Discover the secrets of the large tomb complex as your guide shares details about artifacts like King Zhao Mo’s burial garment, made from more than 2,000 pieces of jade connected by silk thread.

Stop for lunch at a local restaurant, then visit Six Banyan Temple, which dates to 537. The main hall enshrines three copper Buddha statues. Each stands 20 feet (6 meters) high, the largest of their kind in Guangdong Province. Then stroll around the 184-foot (56-meter) tall Flower Pagoda to admire colorful exterior carvings and the decorative copper top piece, cast in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368).

For your final stop, head to Shamian Island, an islet flanked by the Pearl River and White Goose Pool. In the mid-19th century, the island became an enclave for prosperous expat traders who built Western-style mansions and churches there. Today it houses fashionable cafes and boutiques, and many of the colonial mansions are beautifully restored.

At the end of your 8-hour tour, your guide drops you off at your Guangzhou hotel.

Chen Clan Ancestral Hall

1 hour • Admission Ticket Included

Museum of the Western Han Dynasty Mausoleum of the Nanyue King

1 hour • Admission Ticket Included

Temple of the Six Banyan Trees & Flower Pagoda (Liurong Temple)

1 hour • Admission Ticket Included

Shamian Island

1 hour • Admission Ticket Included

Shangxiajiu Pedestrian Street

1 hour • Admission Ticket Free

Additional Info

Confirmation will be received at time of booking
A moderate amount of walking is involved; comfortable walking shoes are recommended
Not wheelchair accessible
Adult pricing applies to all travelers; infants can join free of charge

Infants must sit on laps
Most travelers can participate
This is a private tour/activity. Only your group will participate

Supplied by

Cancellation Policy

You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.

Reviews

4.7

based on 24 reviews

Total reviews and rating from Viator & Tripadvisor

We perform checks on reviews

Great experience with Kevin

Sabrina_G, May 2025

Kevin Ling my tour guide was exceptional. He has extensive knowledge of Chinese history and the Guangzhou area. In addition he is a very kind and caring person. It was an enjoyable day.

Beautiful historical sites!

KrenzyAnn_V, Feb 2020

Kevin Ling was our tour guide. We learned a lot about the main historical sights in Guangzhou because of his very knowledgeable prowess. We managed to fit in a lot of places in one day. Because of this full schedule, it seemed a bit rushed and we weren't able to take our time to take some pictures. Other than that, we still enjoyed this tour. We got to see a lot of amazing and beautiful places in Guangzhou.

well verse with all the sight seeing...

tonyskng5, Feb 2018

well verse with all the sight seeing location and history, very relax and enjoying tour.

This private day tour of Guangzhou...

Eric_C, May 2017

This private day tour of Guangzhou was perfect. My guide Nora took me to the Nanyue Tomb, the six Banyan Temple, the Chen Family's School and finished the with afternoon tea on Shamian Island. Nora is very intelligent and well informed. Overall, it was a great day!

Brilliant, great experience thank you...

Ioan C, Sep 2016

Brilliant, great experience thank you very much, highly recommended

Pleasant and knowledgable guide...

Beverly P, Aug 2016

Pleasant and knowledgable guide. This tour is a very good way to see the scattered sightseeing spots in Guangzhou. I arranged tour online while still in US and all went smoothly

We enjoyed our historical tour of...

Jean T, Aug 2016

We enjoyed our historical tour of Guangzhou very much. Our tour guide was very informative and very interesting. The dim sum lunch was delicious! Thank you to Jack for taking us and being so helpful.

This was a Great Tour, would...

Adam C, Mar 2016

This was a Great Tour, would thoroughly recommend if you have not been to Gunagzhou before or never scene the sites we had but just for business. It takes you round all the places in the city there is to see and you feel you have a real flavor of what the place has to offer. In all honestly the city only really has heritage wise what is on this tour, as a lot the place is new. By doing this tour you will see all you need to and feel you have discovered what there is to see. You also get a good flavor of the downtown, and the 20th Century part of the city as well. Our guide Katrina a local university student was great, she had good knowledge and buckets of enthusiasm, her English was also very good. So all in all if you don't know the city or were to start this is the tour for you!

Even the heavy rain could not dampen...

John I, Dec 2015

Even the heavy rain could not dampen the fascination of this city. The guide was excellent and clearly explained the places that we visited as indeed also the food at the excellent lunch. Highly recommended.

Lili Lam was our tour guide - she...

cherie.wortley, Aug 2015

Lili Lam was our tour guide - she was a very pleasant young lady and good company. She was prompt on all occasions. The tour was leisurely and enjoyable. We would have liked a little more history.

This tour is great as you are taken...

Rita, Apr 2015

This tour is great as you are taken to the historical sights of the city. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and being a private tour meant that the driver of the van was ready and waiting for us each time. This made you feel special and being taken care of in such a busy and large city where English is not the first language.

Highly recommend - great mix of...

Rebecca M, Apr 2015

Highly recommend - great mix of sites and wonderful meal (museum, temple, dim sum, shopping, Shamian Island) - and loved our guide!

This tour was great! Our tour guide...

Michelle C, Apr 2015

This tour was great! Our tour guide and driver picked us up on time at our hotel. The tour company called us the night before confirming our pickup time. The tour guide Jan-Ming? was very friendly and enthusiastic in teaching us about her city and culture. Our driver was quiet, but polite and absolutely fearless in traffic. We visited the burial site of the Nanyue King, the Temple of Six Banyan Trees, the Chen Clan Academy, strolled the streets of Shamian Island and along the Pearl River, had a nice lunch at a downtown hotel restaurant, and walked along a busy shopping street maybe Beijing Road?. There were a few shopping opportunities along the way. Overall, this was a great tour and an interesting learning experience. I highly recommend this tour.

The tour was fun. Our guide did a good...

Mike, Nov 2014

The tour was fun. Our guide did a good job and the lunch was delicious.

All of our group of five thoroughly...

Julie D, Nov 2014

All of our group of five thoroughly enjoyed our full-day tour of Guangzhou. We were picked up on time and our driver (Chow?) was very good. He just materialised out of nowhere after each visit! All the places we visited were interesting and our guide Robert was very knowledgable and spoke perfect English. The Cantonese lunch was delicious! A very well-organised tour ~ thank you!

This tour was interesting and our...

Debra L, Oct 2014

This tour was interesting and our guide was helpful and friendly. However, it is expensive to go on these tours and quite easy to get around by taxi so I would not recommend it.

This tour was for me and my 11 year...

Mai-ana H, Sep 2014

This tour was for me and my 11 year old son. We were picked up from the airport, which did cost us extra, however it meant I had no hassle at all. The tour guide had very good English and was very knowledgeable, she was able to answer any questions we had about anything we saw. Would have liked her company at lunch to possible talk about some of the food, however the lunch was still delicious. Would recommend this tour to anyone.

We paid extra for a pick-up from the...

Robert P, Aug 2014

We paid extra for a pick-up from the airport but couldn't find our guide. A clearer meeting point should be made.

The tour was outstanding. Our driver...

David B, Jul 2014

The tour was outstanding. Our driver called us at our hotel the night before the tour to arrange the start time. Our guide and driver picked us up promptly at the agreed-on time. Our guide spoke English very well, had grown up in the area, and gave us an excellent description of each of our stops. We stopped at a Buddhist Temple first. It happened to be the first day of the Lunar Month and there was a lot of activity there. We made two other stops before lunch. Both were very interesting and our guide told us about the history and customs at each stop. The lunch was excellent - very nice restaurant, very good food, and great service. We made three stops after lunch, including "Chinatown in China", as our guide joked. It was a great shopping district where the streets were closed off to traffic. The driver was excellent and the mini van was air-conditioned and very comfortable. It was a very educational, lively, and thoroughly enjoyable tour. I stongly recommend it. Guangzhou is large (17 million people) and would be extremely difficult to get around in without a good knowledge of the City. The tour made for a great day.

We only had 1 full day in the city...

Susan W, Jan 2014

We only had 1 full day in the city so I convinced my husband that we should book this trip. It was definatly worth it. We were picked up from the hotel by our guide. Jack spoke fantastic English and was extremely knowledgable in the city and it's history. We saw lots of interesting things. The old kings buriel place was very interesting. We had a lovely lunch and dropped off at the end of the day. It was a little expensive but we had a driver and a guide exclusively to ourselves for 6 hours. It was worth it. We thoroughly enjoyed it.

We only had a couple of days to...

Daniel B, Dec 2013

We only had a couple of days to spend in Guangzhou so we decided to book this whole day tour to take in the most of the city. We were very glad that we did. Frank, our tour guide, was very informative. The sites that we visited were all very interesting. But the comments and site-seeing between these was very interesting as well.

I highly recomend this tour, great...

Deborah W, Nov 2013

I highly recomend this tour, great guide who spoke english fluently and was very very knowlegeable and very willing to answer any questions we had. Great sights well worth the experience. Only disappointment was the lunch was in a restuarant that was a little run down but food was fine.