An overnight trip to Guangzhou by boat?
 

So I'll be in Hong Kong for a long weekend next month and have a valid multiple entry China Visa... is there a reasonably simple/pleasant way to take a boat to Guangzhou and spend a night there before coming back? It seems like it would be a beautiful cruise and a nice way to get a taste of Guangzhou.

If that's impractical I'll probably just try Macau.

While I think getting a chance to see thousands of factories -- large and small -- would be interesting, "beauty" is not the word I would use to describe this type of scenery. I also hope you're not sensitive to air pollution (some of the chemical plants emit some pretty potent gases, for example).

Closest you can get by ferry are Nan Sha or Lian Huang Shan. Not near center of GZ. Also, you can only see out of potentially dirty windows of the high-speed catamaran.

Better to take the train.

Oh well, this is why we have a forum to ask about these things before actually attempting the trips...

Maybe I'll try to take a ferry to Macau, spend a night there or in Zhuhai, take a train to Guangzhou and spend a night there, then take a train back to Hong Kong. I like wandering without backtracking.

Thanks.

This is one of the many bookmarked links that we use & share (schedules subject to change, of course - please confirm) - http://www.cantontradefair.com/trans...hou-Ferry.aspx

Just FYI, travel to GZ & Macau is typically by Turbojet and/or Fast Ferry, those prone to motion sickness are cautioned to take measures as the waters & going up river can be choppy. Direct routing over water is roughly about 2 hours - years ago & I mean a long, long time ago, there was slower - overnight "slower" boat to/from mainland - nowadays, preference and demand is for fast & direct options like a 35 minute flight or HSI train.

Depending on your travel dates next month, beware of the annual mass migration in travel due to upcoming national holiday period and billions on the move, don't want to be "caught" in the tidal wave of mainlanders heading "home" everywhere. Book ahead & confirm your ticketing and enjoy the trip ... hopefully.

Catamarans going up the Pearl River usually don't see much choppy waters. Unless there's typhoon or strong monsoon. Not really a concern. For going to Macau, the jetfoils and foilcats are more stable than the catamarans.

And the ferries from HK to Lianhuashan is still 5 sailings a day, but to Nansha is down to just 5 of them. And three of those are Lianhuashan sailings with an extra stop. With the quicker, more frequent and much cheaper coaches, the ferry simply cannot compete.

-HKG-CAN flights are tailored almost exclusively to passengers with connections (i.e. xxx-HKG-CAN or HKG-CAN-yyy).
-I take the 30 minute trains myself because I'm closer to Shenzhen North than Luohu, and I can tolerate showing up at Guangzhou South, but it would be difficult to make them less convenient; things will improve quite a bit on the Shenzhen end when the Futian-Shenzhen North section opens

I hear that. There are a whole lot of "Narita" HSR stations in China.

However, do you know if Shenzhen Xi is to undergo an upgrade?

I remember having taken those ferries overnight in the early 90s.
Arriving at Guangzhou around 6 am. That is all history.

There were also hoverferries to Huangpu, which is closer to central GZ then Lianhuashan or Nansha. Of course all history.