Guangzhou: The REAL home of Cantonese Food

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] in this episode of travelogue we explore Guangzhou on the Pearl River Delta we'll discover how family Pan's shaped this city's fortunes and how the spirit of change turned it into a modern-day economic powerhouse the Pearl River known in Chinese as the to tell with its eastern western and northern tributaries it's actually a vast river system the third longest river in China and the second largest by volume and presiding over its mouth on the South China Sea is Guangzhou [Music] my father best honest idiotic for 16 years above ruling metropolis of wonder one of disease in China no sir the most important city on the power of the Delta but it has so much history also start of the maritime Silk Road it was also the main chemical kid from Europe and America so it's mostly wealthy moments uncover the history behind all of that bomb issue that may wonder what it is there are over 2000 years Guangzhou has sat on this prime spot beside the Pearl River the last two century saw it rise to fame as Kant on and transformed into one of China's most progressive cities many of the global Chinese diaspora can trace their roots back here and no matter how far the Cantonese get in life they never forget their heritage I've gotta say out of all of the ancestral halls I've been to this is by far the most impressive so the thing about the chen clans ancestral hall is firstly when they were built the chancer name was the most common surname in guangdong province but it was besides a place of ancestor worship also a place for networking because obviously was a big family there are a lot of people who had made it in their respective fields so it was a concentration of wealth and power right here one of the best ways to show it was through beautiful artwork which is why have such great typical Lingnan art sculptures circles murals and these works of Arts were essentially old-school blink they showed off the Chen family sophistication and are exemplary of Lingnan art which is all about attention to detail look closely and you'll find auspicious motifs carved into the wood and stone and figures from Fall Conference sculpted out of plaster and porcelain guy tiny need to find out more about the well-heeled citizens of Guangzhou I've come to see one sandwiched between the port and the foreign Enclave this neighborhood was home to Canton's most successful merchants and today many well preserved buildings and traditions remain Lantana hunched over to the Yangtze River to learn about her tongue some module in Jesus that was conceived to litter honey pseudo jnana teacher we then talk their son da da ha ha ha before the 1960s copper where was all the rage in Guangzhou since copper is antibacterial in the past every family had to have a copper wash basin or kettle they were treasured heirlooms to be passed down from generation to generation do I hear 200 tons of other things here or what you won Herbie - I want items or a bottom margin so Lucy now you got your dang game still yeah you got it is super heavy I mean it's like I'm carrying this right now and I feel like my entire hand is kind of thinking doesn't this all sounds like a towel finally those Liu Gong Gong game Tallulah that's why I want you but uh you hi would you hear when I stand out people are lucky tide the Guardian flew Tanya see you around your own is on your bed Han Han sitting down with these two generations of craftsmen I find that each has his own take on the future of the family business so Union is all about e-commerce but his uncle still prefers to operate out of this old tenement building hold a cello in Chinese look a univer show you that creepy faces Erica are you chatting assaulting Hammonds are you to say that it [Music] typically the ground floor of the t-low is used as shop fronts while the owners live upstairs these marriages of East and West have Cantonese balconies and stained-glass windows however the most traditional of Guangzhou's houses are to be found on fire and road these are the siguen mansions formerly home to can't on delete see for the Sun Oven Kylie used to the throw your summer jump tomorrow yo-o-ow meant to become a better term my developing was little more funky never bargained a cheeky dirty what are you a turtle - yeah it's out of wool that's what I am told I did ah okay and uh Connor given over tender media Howie and I to come into vogue on 1 July photon of hot heavily our table everyone here's all your thought yes on the New York Islanders in Allah knowledge is quantum I just can't shake off how ingenious the Cantonese are their buildings really embody form and function the attention to detail is also part of the secret to the fame of Cantonese food a new Ming knows just the place to try some I'm will also see one hotel rooms yeah eating L see each other going from yet Oh a quick blanch and these in turn all wonton noodles are almost ready but with so many different takes on the dish how do you know which one's the best and I didn't have three full-time Pournami fatal ha ha ha no sweetie and how humanely our pain and Gouda fertility any minute Ianto bianchina 30 - ha ha ha ha the Turkish c-130 men being taught how to eat here are real everywhere certain bangerra came here to teach yoga yeah tonight or don't eat on for the u n-- t NZ I thought Amir mail them Olga when you drink it it's savory as a little bit of sort of seafood amount of texture in there but it's just right it's so right I want another helping [Music] [Music] coming up next we explore Guangzhou's foreign Enclave and find out how the West did trade with Imperial China there we'll take a look at the lives of the early Cantonese emigrants so there are obviously a lot fewer boats out on the Po River these days but if you came here in the mid 18th to 19th century this place would have been chock-full of trading vessels because right behind me was the old concessionary area and this was really if you were foreign merchants where your first glances of China so today I found a new wave of foreign locals to show me around it was here on shanian Island that the international community lived and played speakin of play show me around today is Ben from cycle Canton a cycle tour company that offers Guangzhou's number-one-ranked activity on TripAdvisor not so soon as they yeah if you're looking to swim in Guangzhou this is the place every day you see locals who are swimming just off the islands also the Pro River gets its name from the stones at the bottom that used to shine like pros maybe on a good day we'll see that this little Pecola corner of Europe actually hawks back to more violent times when the west clash of China during the opening wounds they developed an insatiable thirst for Chinese tea and amassed a huge debt they couldn't pay off since the Ching dynasty wasn't interested in buying their products a visual reminder of this is the French Customs House built using red brick from Australia they were brought in as ballast onboard everything ships oh wow a chat you've got the lady of our Lord's Chapel there built in 1891 it's immediately on the French side of the border between British and French Concession I always made this day exactly actually the island was bought by the British after the Second Opium War but they leased this side to the French Shammi an island seems worlds away from the manic streets of Guangzhou which may be why it's scenic boulevards are now popular destinations for both wedding photographers and selfie addicted hipsters alike it's a good location yeah this beautiful building on your left used to be the French police station and it's located right at the end of the island so the bridge just opposite the French police station was guarded 24 hours a day their exclusive here that's changed quite a lot in recent years today it's one of the popular places for foreign visitors as well as their local artists shamon Island foreign merchants operated out of what were known as the 13 factories unfortunately they burned down during the opium wars and a museum now stands on the former site these were actually immersion houses built by the Chinese merchants and they would be branded by foreigners as offices and warehouses they located the Qing government wanted to confine a trade here at Canton and they choose a place in the western part of Canton so you could say basically everyone every foreign version and to China pretty much located here [Music] in those days Canton was one of the fashion capitals of the world you can also find China's most desirable exports here such as lacquer ware ivory and of course porcelain much of it would cater to Western tastes custom-built orders which required a little more communication [Music] because English and Danish exactly communicating with how you communicate that ginseng how do you how do you do long time I know healthy I can't have a long time before time I know have come be shorter what thing you want you owe something each outing you have something doesn't me hey I can do the answering cuz I'm Chinese you know seriousness day the Pearl River reminds me of the Thames in London both rivers run through the heart of their city and in doing so turn it into the trading capital of the respective empire they're not only brought in wealth but also new cultures ideas and even lifestyles the terms has been called the liquid history a firm I feel is even more appropriate slip or revise see one scientist lyrical longer has many many many waterways canals like the Thames the Pearl River was once heavily polluted but thanks to an ongoing city sanitation campaign many streams are now clean enough to bathe in and where there's fresh water there's fresh food oh my god this this is not a pet market right Cantonese are set to eat everything with four legs with the kitchen table so here you have it she yes I've never seen this many varieties of frogs and tortoises wholly well guys if you want some really or offending local Chinese food this is definitely the place to go check that out that is definitely not a snake tail oh my god they've got crocodile right here okay oh my God look at this that is absolutely as fresh as it will ever get Jennifers Gemma with such a large variety of fresh ingredients it's no wonder there are so many Cantonese restaurants in China towns around the world the Cantonese just missed their home cooking [Music] very much like the alleyway payday [Music] then taking me even further off the beaten track with some thirteen million residents more than the population of Greece Guangzhou is understandably strapped for space which gives rise to these cramped alleys and narrow tenement buildings my dear they're worth a fortune Wow looks like we're in someone's house yeah actually five houses here on the one property toward the end of the Qing Dynasty many Chinese families in Guangzhou China in the 20s with the new government they decided it was time to move back and contribute to rebuilding the new China but they had nine kids four daughters and five sons a family and the five houses here were intended for their sons the knee trying of an old tradition right [Music] these days the house is managed by a family relative who's turned it into an old skull cafe there seems to be a common theme among quantal people that no matter where they emigrated they never turn their backs on their ancestral home everything they learned or earned abroad goes towards enriching the lives their families and China heads or the well-kept hands groupies are fine hopefully unexpected it up it's like an oasis in this is completely hidden away this is the old families and hospital halls archive and the gentlemen I'm with is the president it was huge eye detection intrusion Honda ha T Jolla till you into me oh my son of Milan oh you know what I make what kind of pouch like a Chow barber not a tea with Sousou but this is the moment I know why caboose of war to sanity Rama what your way died since then mr. Oh has been collecting archive materials and donations from all around the world to keep this ancestral hall going since filial piety is deeply rooted in Chinese culture everyone's happy to pitch in I saw the accounting book earlier things very clearly right down in there well how powerful time kill me up next we take a step back in time to explore Guangzhou's past before meeting up with the innovators who are helping to shape this [Music] well you wouldn't know it by looking at it today but for about 80 years from the mid 18th century this here harmful port was probably one of the busiest ports in China in fact it was the only international port open to the Americas and to Europe if you're a normal sailor this would be where you offloaded all of your goods to be then shipped on to the 13 factories but it would also be the first place you set foot on in China and this basically it was so wealthy that it accounted for 80 up to 90% of all customs revenue in the Po River Delta which would have made this place one of the richest places in China there's not much left of the old port but the sheer number of ancestral halls located here hints at the scale of the former operation as we've already seen whenever someone makes it big they'll build an ancestral home the better it looked the more successful you were this would have been Canton's Manhattan its central business district a place for Canton's high-rollers to strut their stuff okay local Sam further inland from wonpil port there is an even older harbour so imagine this 6000 years ago everything behind me would have been ocean and this is the world's furthest inland ancient coastline it's now over a hundred kilometres away from our current coastline over there so the pol River Delta as we know it used to be completely under the ocean now Guangzhou now drew high notion to know nothing this was the mouth of the Pearl River boggles the mind to think that this piece of rock from the ocean floor would eventually transform into the bustling megalopolis of today's pol River Delta much of the PRD region is now connected by Metro but I can't think of a better way to see the Pearl River then onboard Guangzhou's shiny new trapped he was like I'm gliding towards the future I live in Beijing so I'm used to skyscrapers but this here is pretty special we've been walking around the old parts of Guangzhou with lots of Qing Dynasty buildings and old wooden gates this is actually quite a refreshing change of pace after the opium wars sports China to open new treaty ports guangzhou lost a bit of steam an awful lot since 1957 it's held the biannual Canton Fair the largest and oldest import-export trade fair in the country when China's economic reform kicked in Rondo quickly reinvented itself as a trading hub the clothing industry and at the TI T creative park local startups are once again pushing the boundaries of innovation and design yes commit important zhang hanyan yes i essential functions I do lengthy bundles for Johnston illegally allottee it should be passed down cash to them to the house shouldn't become so flowy ginger coffee come to me all that you pack it down you gotta come with you I'm sure they said you should you know check out that you should catch it I was you to console yeah we should you meet them searching for jump how do they gonna bring y'all the people however Guangzhou is not just about a Tyrell I do so into the water you could leak I found you go to happen with - how's your - the one I've had a follow-up oh yeah 850 cheap you think you're under de línea she so far from daughter granny for two hours I wishing me he don't you and of course where there are startups there are co-working spaces to accommodate their every whim what can't door creates all pass out kids we go age it keeps losing bangles in the shushil drum father will be our little all of the angels will tear honey though co-working is nothing new China is in the grip of start-up fever and young 20-somethings are issuing stable jobs for the chance to create the next big thing who knows perhaps the next tech unicorn will come out of this very office now the heaviest hitter in this creative park is preached at the union you are sure you have our vision to you remember our union sign your artichoke Hagen who food I love you go you don't you must about time son here since I won no your young college over you - yeah - Tim's eluded me gonna feel for you to start on board your young missionary or tradition near Ottawa WeChat is much more than a messaging app it's a facebook whatsapp Instagram and Apple pay will combined in one it's completely changed the way we live work and eat in China and to prove this point Frank is taking me out for dim sum valid southern Utah - about a mail truck [Music] that's actually surprisingly not bad at all can you get a bit of a wasabi kick the egginess gives it a nice little sweet aftertaste it's not that it's it's a bit weird I think you have to get used to it but I'm like it of course we also ordered hot girl will ship dump this magical wet dealership rock seaboard we all know we saw yeah you know what I noticed everyone in Guangzhou is a foodie it doesn't matter in what sphere you work in if you come to Cointreau you'll have to know how to eat one simply does not eat dim sum alone these branches are as much about enjoying delicious bite-size morsels of food as they are about having great conversation with family and friends Frank tells me that 93% of people in first tier cities like Beijing Shanghai and Guangzhou use WeChat and that we chat pay is revolutionizing the way we spend money in China I wholeheartedly agree wondering tomorrow night and Inga hall so that your food oh sorry Zack I'm positive that I ever couple of seconds is all it takes to sort out our split bill there are faffing about with calculators and loose change the beauty of WeChat is that it does everything you can use it to call friends book taxis order takeout even buy tickets for an evening cruise on the Pearl River it doesn't get more glorious than this hole aboard tonight's performance promises to be a bit I like it already it's a bit like we're in the middle of a ching dynasty movie [Music] apparently this show tells the story of a Cantonese awesome although with all the aerial silks and moving stages it feels more like a Disneyland ride not that I'm complaining this is a lot more fun [Music] yeah I have no idea what's going on but that doesn't stop me from enjoying the show because this is how you should upgrade traditional Chinese opera the 21st century [Music] Cantonese opera 2.0 I like [Music] [Music] Wow I mean just look at its amazingly I'm so happy to be alive right now obviously a couple hundred years ago the pole river was probably still as impressive and back then to quandra would have been a place that's on the cutting edge because it was one of the few ports in China that was open to the outside world and I think you know Guangzhou is an interesting piece it's chaotic its manic its traditional but it's always changing I think that really is the essence of this town it's always evolving it's always at the forefront I think the Pearl River definitely has something to do with that [Music]

Channel: CGTN

Views: 108,308

Rating: 4.7747655 out of 5

Keywords: CCTVNews, CGTN, PearlRiver, Travelogue, Guangzhou, China, Canton, cuisine, travel, chinatravel, cantonesefood, chinastreetfood

Id: FWnlS-vcOQU

Length: 29min 19sec (1759 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 19 2017