Guangzhou Accessibility: Seriously, WTF? (A Rant)

[Joseph Thompson]

Sure, here’s my translation of the article from Chinese into English:

Experiences with Accessibility Facilities in Guangzhou

Guangzhou

To be frank, if one relies on a wheelchair or encounters difficulty moving about, visiting some places in Guangzhou could prove challenging. I am sharing some experiences of my visit with the hope they will help you as well as other foreign visitors to come:

• Peasant Movement Institute

  • This is a historic site and quite famous.
  • Caution: This place has no wheelchair access! When I asked for help, the security staff were not very encouraging.

• Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall

  • Slightly better in this landmark building.
  • Upon your request, the staff will guide you through a side door from where you can explore the ground-floor exhibitions.
  • However: wheelchair users cannot go up to the second or third floors.

• Transportation

  • We mostly opted for taxis throughout our trip.
  • Only once did we use MTR . This was to get us from Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall to Yuexiu Park. MTR proved to be a convenient option for this trip.
  • Take note: For station entry, we had to locate an entrance that offered elevators or ramps for wheelchair users - a procedure that took us over half an hour!
  • But I must give a big thumbs-up to the staff of MTR. They were really helpful, and I am thankful for their service.

• Yuexiu Park & Five Rams Sculpture

  • The Five Rams Sculpture is quite the icon of Guangzhou, recommended on many travel apps (e.g., Xiaohongshu, a social media platform where Chinese people share travel info).
  • Many travelers say that taking the west-southern gate of the park is the most convenient way to the sculpture. There is a flat road that leads straight to the viewing platform. From there, it's still a steep climb of roughly 100 steps to the actual sculpture but there are reportedly elevators 🛓 available. So, I decided to take a look.
  • When I came out of the park, I also took the southern-western exit, which is indeed much safer for someone in a wheelchair.
  • But when going in, I used entrance A of the metro station( because I failed to find the southwest gate). Before entering, I particularly made sure the elevator next to the sculpture worked, and they said "yes".
  • Sadly, I ended up walking in a huge circle following entrance A with all uphills on the way, just to find myself at the viewing platform with no elevator there!
  • Heartbreak: the elevator was under maintenance and inoperable!
    • P.S. I later found out this elevator had been closed since end of November last year (November 2023), yet the park staff did not mention a single word of it! (I genuinely recommend that announcements should be posted near the park entrance!)

Hope these stories could help fellow travellers just like me!