The Canton Customs Mansion is located at No.29 of Yanjiang Xi Road, Guangzhou. The Customs was established in the 24th year of the Kangxi Regin (1685), Being one of the first four customs of China. In the 10th year of Xianfeng’s Reign (1685), the Tariff Department was established at the present location, while the Canton Customs Mansion laid its foundation in the 3rd year of the Republic of China (1914). Designed by British archiect David Dick in the style of neo-classicism of Europe, and undertaken by the Huachang Engineering Company, the Canton Customs House finished construction in May, 1916. A photo of the mansion was sent for exhibition at the “American Architectural Technology Competition” in April, 1925.

Facing south, this mansion was a reinforced concrete, stone and brick structure occupying a construction area of 3,200 square meters. The four-storey high southeast façade of the mansion was masoned in granite. Both the inside layout and the overall structure of the building are very well-protected. Three Chinese characters,(Guangdong Customs), are inscribed on the archway.

On the roof of the façade is a four-side, doom-roofed bell tower, decorated by thirteen-meter high twin Tuscan columns at each of the four corners and huge clocks on each of the four sides, which are 2.5 meters in diameter. The bells tell time at 24 hours a day, which won the mansion the name of “Bell Tower” among the people of Guangzhou.

The Canton Customs Mansions was named Municipal and Provincial Cultural Relic Protection Units in August, 1993 and July, 2002 respectively by the Municipal Government of Guangzhou and the Provincial Government of Guangdong. On May 25, 2006, it was pronounced as a National Key Cultural Relic Protection Unit by the State Council, China’s cabinet. The Mansion is now the Guangzhou Branch of the China Customs Museum.
Address: No.29, West Yanjiang Road, Liwan District Post
Opening time: 9:30 am -04:00 pm (Only on Wednesday)
Ticket: free

The Guangzhou Library, established by the Guangzhou Municipal Government (GMG), was created for the benefit of the public’s welfare, and to serve as a cultural and educational institution. The Library’s services are based on collecting, organizing, and housing all categories of written knowledge and information including paper-based materials, audio-visual materials, and digital materials. The library offers lending materials, reference and information services, exhibitions and lectures, art appreciation, cultural exhibits, Internet services, public education services, research, and spaces for communication.

The new Guangzhou Library is situated on the banks of the Pearl River on Flower City Square and on Guangzhou’s new central axis. The square is the GMG’s effort to create a city “living room”. The Library is the “cultural window” of the city’s “living room”. The new library uses “Beautiful Books” as the design concept, and the placement of the structure is based on the city’s new central axis. Taken from east to west, the elegant design of the north and south towers bares a resemblance to the Chinese character “之”. The cascading style of the “books” on the exterior is representative of the overlap of history and culture. At the same time, the design integrates the typical architectural concept of arcade, and embodies elements of Lingnan art.

The new Guangzhou Library covers a gross area of 100 thousand square kilometers and holds 3.82 million books（Guangzhou Library has 5.26 million books in all）. It provides 4 thousand seats and 500 computers for readers to use. There are 4 thousand Internet nodes in the new Guangzhou Library and the wifi service is available in the whole building. Services provided will include the lending and housing of materials and reference services. Equipped with RFID technology, an automatic sorting system and various other electronic self-service devices, the new library will optimize its collection management practices and provide fast and convenient services. Additionally, the new facility is functionally divided into different service areas, which include general services, targeted services, special topic services, communication and exchange activities, and collection services. The new library is characterized by its distinct combination of contemporary and traditional Lingnan design. It will undoubtedly rank among the best domestic public libraries. It will be one of the most automated and open facilities, it will be convenient for patrons, and it will offer one of the largest domestic collections.
The Digital New Library
surface area: 100,000 square meters
collection: 4.00 million volumes (total GZ Library collection: 5.74 million items)
seats: 4,000
public use computers: 500
wired Internet connections: 4,000
wireless coverage area: 100%

Generally ‘Dongshan (东山)’ is defined more as a geographic concept than an administrative region. Locals usually think of the area east to Dadao Lu (达道路), west to Dongshankou Metro Station, south to Xinhepu Lu (新河浦路) and north to Nonglin Dong Lu (农林东路).
Lying just west of Guangzhou’s new downtown is Dongshan, one of a handful of little neighborhoods in the city to retain its traditional look and even some of its old character. Though it is not the first area sought after by visitors or by locals, on many accounts it deserves to be, as it has some of the nicest walks you’ll discover in Guangzhou. Here you’ll find streets lined with a blend of European and Chinese architecture, houses with gorgeous facades, a long canal lined with trees and flowers, small quiet housing communities, and of course the main walking street of Dongshan Da Jie, which is where most of the restaurants and colorful Chinese shops can be found. Even a short stay in Guangzhou would miss out on a unique piece of its history, and a very relaxing stroll, if it did not include this little-developed, historical downtown neighborhood.
Dongshan, which means Eastern Hills, actually has quite a bit of history as a part of Guangzhou. It was a small, poor eastern suburb during the Ming dynasty, until an influential court official built Dongshan Temple here. With the temple came more people, and with more people came more homes and shops. Dongshan started to become more than a shanty town. Dongshan Temple, though it no longer exists, is still known to the public through the names of many of the neighborhood streets. Names such as Miao Xian Zhi Jie, which literally means “temple front straight street” once indicated to visitors that it was the street immediately in front of the temple.
Dongshan received further attention after the turn of the 20th century through the settlement of Westerners here. Preachers built churches, schools and orphanages, and wealthy Westerners made their homes here, providing the neighborhood with everything from balconies to stained glass and Greco-roman pillars. This heavily European style of building became commonly called Dongshang Yang Fang, a self-explanatory name which simply means Dongshan Foreign Style. The name has a very broad meaning; some of the buildings may seem closer to the Western style of Shamian, and others to the very blended style of Xiguan, while yet still others seem unique, probably built to suit the tastes of the owners.
Eventually, as Dongshan expanded and its finances grew, the neighborhood became well-known as a home to wealthy Chinese. The popular term Dongshan Dashao was used for the local wealthy young men. This brief period of history starting in the 1920s is recorded in part by many legendary romances between the stylish young men from Dongshan and the rich young women from Xiguan. It was believed that pairs from the two neighborhoods were the perfect match.