The broad Pearl River, an ancient and modern trade route, is Guangzhou's raison d'être, so it's an ideal place to start your walk. Just across Liu Er San Road from the Huangsha metro station, Shamian Island is a tranquil bubble of 19th-century European architecture transplanted 8,000 miles east to the center of a Chinese inland port.

The "island" part of the name is something of a misnomer; although Shamian is surrounded by the Pearl River, it is separated from the mainland by a small channel. The European-style edifices on the island and nearby riverbanks host a variety of laid-back restaurants, streetside cafes, bars and shops. The half-mile-long island's leafy cobbled avenues still provide a respite from the clogged city streets nearby.

The genteel Victory Hotel dates to the 1920s and houses a good dim sum restaurant and coffee shop. Originally named for Britain's Queen Victoria, the locals adjusted the sign just as the Communist revolution reached Guangzhou in the late 1940s.

Leaving Shamian Island via one of the small bridges north of the Victory Hotel and crossing Liu Er San Lu will bring you to the infamous Qingping market, once a den of exotic animals like monkeys and civet cats in stacked cages all slated to be food, not friends. In fact the close proximity of species here, and a general lack of hygiene were believed to have contributed to the outbreak of the SARS virus in 2003.

Government pressure means nowadays the menagerie is hidden indoors and down back alleys, but the trade in animal products goes on. You'll see everything from deer antler to dried starfish, plus a variety of cooked and fresh bugs. If you show the slightest interest, English-speaking stallholders will spring to educate you on the medicinal benefits of live scorpions and centipedes.

Continuing north another quarter-mile along Wenchang Nan Lu and turning right on Changshou Xi Lu will bring you past Guangzhou's vast Hualin Street Jade market. The market is centered on Hualin temple, established almost 1,500 years ago by Indian traveler Bodhidharma (called Damo in China), the founder of Zen Buddhism.

According to legend, he also devised the exercise regime that eventually became the martial art, Gong Fu, better known in the West as Kung Fu—though historians dispute this link. You can also reach the Jade Market area by taking a short walk east from Changshou Lu metro station past the many shops lining Changshou Lu.

A half-mile (or one subway stop) north of Changshou Lu, the Chen family academy at 7 Zhongshan St., provides an interesting insight into Chinese culture and clan houses.

The 100-year-old complex, one of China's biggest clan houses, was built with contri-butions from thousands of people with only the surname Chen in common—with the twin purposes of honoring their ancestors and educating their descendants. Chen is among the most common Chinese family names—borne by one in ten people in
Southern China.

Inside the Chen complex, traditional gray Qing dynasty temple buildings with brightly colored sculpted highlights surround a square courtyard. The area is dotted with small tea houses and souvenir stands. The buildings are also home to the Guangdong Museum of Folk Arts and house an impressive collection of traditional paintings on silk screens, as well as other artwork and museum pieces.

The adjacent metro station, Chenjiaci, gets its name from the complex.