Canton Tower: Officially Off My List. Terrible Experience!
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Alright, no problem! I'll rephrase it to help your foreign friends understand the frustration in your description while preserving your “venting.” Ha-ha!
Let me tell you about my unhappy experience at Canton Tower in Guangzhou on August 3rd!
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Climbing the tower was just one endless queue after another!
- I had bought a ticket online for the time slot between 6 pm and 8 pm, thinking it would be fine.
- I arrived right past 6 pm, only to find out that getting my physical ticket involved waiting for almost an hour!
- (A tip for foreign friends: In China, even tickets purchased online may still require you to exchange for a paper one at the site itself.)
- After the ticket exchange, there was another twenty minutes of queueing for security check.
- Then, taking the elevator to the top took another twenty-plus minutes. I can't believe it had already taken nearly two hours, and I hadn't even made it to the top!
- Finally arriving, I rushed straight to level 108, only to realize I needed to climb the stairs a few floors more to reach the viewing area.
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The experience at the top? Not worth every penny!
- Spending over 200 yuan (around $30 USD), how could I not be excited? Result? Let me put it this way: DESPAIR!
- All you can do once you're up there is basically just look down upon Guangzhou city from above.
- If you want to ride the Sky Wheel (Bubble Tram/Ferris Wheel) located on the tower, you better prepare for additional waiting, at least half an hour to an hour.
- And those thrill-at-a-height activities, they also require queueing. You only get to scream and enjoy two minutes before returning to ground level.
- To be honest, the view from the 108th floor isn't much different from the 107th; just some height difference there!
- And what rubbed me the wrong way is how those free photo spots that used to be Instagrammer hotspots have suddenly become pay-to-take-them, upping the price to as high as 88 yuan per picture. Unbelievable!
- By the way, you got to wait again to get out, taking another half an hour.
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Getting off the tower and heading home? An added nightmare!
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I finally managed to get down at almost 10 pm.
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But what awaits me is a sea of people at the base of the tower! No way to squeeze into the subway entrance – not even an option!
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I used the ride-hailing app just like Uber/Grab – waited forever but no drivers were accepting the order.
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️️Important Notice️️- Finally, after some struggle, I managed to flag down a taxi, but only needing a ride to the nearby subway station, 1-2 km away – the driver demanded as much as 60 yuan! It’s like extortion! (Under normal circumstances, the reasonable fare would just be in the low double digits).
- (A travel tip for foreigners: Beware of taxi drivers inflating prices at famous tourist destinations after dark. Always insist on metering; even better if you pre-check on ride-hailing apps before getting into a taxi.)
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In the end, I had no choice but to take the bus to another subway station to make it home, with another long journey ahead.
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In sum, yes, my pick of being there during the holiday weekend wasn’t a smart decision. But even so, 200+ yuan for a ticket, you got to at least convince me it’s worth half the price! Arriving expecting to marvel at what seemed like a landmark site of Guangzhou, the entire experience turned out to be a sheer disappointment. No way I'm ever returning!
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Since it's hot now, indoor activities are probably a better bet. If you're with kids, Grandview Mall (Zhengjia Plaza) is a good option with lots of exhibitions and rides. You could also check out the Mausoleum of the Nanyue King and the Thirteen Hongs Museum – one tells stories of the Yue King, the other showcases luxury goods. The Guangdong Museum is another choice, if you can manage to book tickets. The Swan Lake Greater Bay Area Centre for the Arts is quite large, so kids can run around freely. The Guangdong Science Center in University Town is also very spacious. You can book activities there, but you'll need to see if the timing works out. For example, viewing the summer starry sky through an astronomical telescope is a nighttime activity and might run quite late. If you haven't seen a circus before, the Chimelong International Circus is an option, though prices seem to have gone up for the peak season. If it's all adults, you could take the tram from Canton Tower and get off at Party Pier; the bar street there has live music, and the night view is decent. However, the most beautiful night view in Guangzhou is definitely at Huacheng Square.
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Wow, this is the longest comment I've ever received! Thanks so much for the detailed recommendations, that's really thoughtful of you! I went to the museum, and it was genuinely great!
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Hey sis, how long did it take you to get downstairs?
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We started queuing to go down around 10-ish, from the 107th floor. The elevator capacity is pretty small, so we waited for almost half an hour.
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What's the big deal about going up the tower anyway? Standing in such a tiny space just to look at rows and rows of buildings... what's the appeal, really?
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Well, because out-of-towners haven't been, and they always hear people talking about it.
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I was stuck in the same sea of people. They weren't even letting people into the subway, so I just ended up wandering around the base of the tower for ages.
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Yeah, it was a really long walk.
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It's like that everywhere when it's crowded. 'Can't even squeeze into the subway station,' 'drivers overcharging like crazy,' and 'getting home exhausted after 10 PM' – these aren't issues specific to the Canton Tower. You don't have to like the Canton Tower, but I don't think your reasons are fair. It's like experiencing Shanghai on a 5,000 RMB/month budget with its packed subways and fast food, versus experiencing the glamorous 'Magic City' Shanghai on a 500,000 RMB/month budget.
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That makes sense.
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Is the Ferris wheel worth riding?
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Honestly, you might as well go to Happy Valley. The tickets to go up here cost a fortune, several hundred RMB!
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Would it be any better on a weekday?
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But there's really not much to see up there, unless you don't mind spending over 200 RMB just to watch the sunset.
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Just go back to delivering your takeaways, mate.
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What's that supposed to mean?
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I went around the same time last night, and there was basically no queue; we got to the platform in 30 minutes. But honestly, it was a real letdown. Trying to get good night photos is pretty much impossible – every view is obstructed by pillars or the Ferris wheel cars. The experience doesn't even come close to the Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai.
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And the management is worlds apart. Both are landmark TV towers, but one's heavenly and the other... well, not.
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@Squidward