Shamian Island (pronounced “Shah-myen”) is a little section of Guangzhou separated by a bit of a moat from the rest of the city. That is, it hangs out into the Pearl River, even though it’s not obvious if you look at a city map. The U.S. Consulate is here (serving an area of China with a population of over 200 million! Inconceivable!).
The White Swan Hotel is also here — an interesting place, as it is filled with U.S. parents adopting Chinese babies and children. There is some procedural reason (visa, immigration?) why they stay here in Guangzhou. As such, the White Swan has a little neighborhood of shops selling baby and children-sized clothing (traditional, too), diapers, and some Western-style foods.
Guangzhou was the only port in China open to foreigners from 1757 to 1842, and Shamian Island retains some vestiges of that colonial history with rather handsome buildings, a charming French church, and so forth. So a little cottage industry has appeared on the island….brides and grooms get their wedding photographs taken with some of these lovely buildings in the background.
Here’s a poor-quality photo of several brides lined up to get their picture taken (one wearing jeans underneath the dress):
Another lucky couple:
La Dolce Vita Restaurant (delicious!) is located on the far Eastern edge of the island:
Getting to Shamian Island is hard to describe in words. Take the metro to Huangsha. You have to go over a large pedestrian overpass to get to the island…if you end up crossing what looks like a small canal, (after the pedestrian overpass) that’s good. The White Swan hotel tower can be seen toward the South.