Shenzhen/Guangzhou - Day 5 (Canton Fair Complex

We woke up at 7.30am and the weather was cloudy. We bought a 9.03am train ticket from Shenzhen to Guangzhou through trip.com (Price - ¥ 99.10 per person for the premium ticket, including the RM 14 processing fee). Shenzhen Railway Station is a short walk from the Shangri-La Hotel. The check-in process was really fast. There's no queue, and all we have to do is scan our passports, followed by our bags. The boarding gate will open 15 minutes before departure. There's a convenience shop inside the train station and my partner bought a bottle of milk tea and a slice of strawberry bread.

Boarding starts at 8.50am and there are only 16 premium seats available. My partner bought the front row, and there are just four of us in the premium seating cabin. The seats are very comfortable and it's a relaxing trip. We had our milk tea and strawberry bread, but neither tasted particularly nice to me. The milk tea and strawberry bread are both too sweet for my liking, but I enjoy the chewy bread texture. The train departs at 9.03am and makes two stops (Ping Hu Railway Station at 9.15am and Chanping Railway Station at 9.35am) before arriving at Guangzhou East Railway Station at 10.15am. The train journey takes approximately 1 hour and 12 minutes.

Shenzhen Railway Station

Ticketing machine

Shenzhen Railway Station entrance

Security checking in Shenzhen Railway Station

Convenience shop inside Shenzhen Railway Station

Milk tea - ¥ 6

Strawberry bread - ¥ 6

Strawberry bread

Shenzhen Railway Station

Premium seats

High speed train

Upon arrival at the Guangzhou East Railway Station, we just need to scan our passport before exiting the station. We then walked to Chuangshan Restaurant, located inside No. 9 Spa Club, for our brunch. On our fourth day in Guangzhou, we had our lunch in this restaurant before we went to Shenzhen. We decided to return since it was so close to the train station and the roasted pork was tasty.

This time, we had steamed chicken and roasted pork. The meal comes with vegetables, a Chinese braised soy sauce egg and a box of chrysanthemum tea. Our favourite is still the roasted pork, which has crispy skin and tender meat. However, the steamed chicken was a bit tough and chewy. The chrysanthemum tea is on the sweet side. My partner also bought some goose dishes from the nearby shop. It's tender but not as flavourful as Chuangshan Restaurant.

No. 9 Spa Club

Chuangshan Restaurant

Chili

Steamed chicken with roasted pork, vegetables and chrysanthemum drink - ¥ 23

Few shops away from Chuangshan Restaurant

Goose - ¥ 23

After our brunch, we took the metro from the Guangzhou East Railway Station to Xingangdong Station (¥ 4 per person). Basically, we are very familiar with this route since it's our third time taking the metro to Canton Fair Complex. It took us 30 minutes to arrive at the Canton Fair Complex just, before noon.

We spent almost two hours exploring the fair before deciding to eat a late lunch at McDonald's. We shared a set meal A, which comes with a Big Mac, chicken McNuggets (5pcs), French fries and Coca-Cola (Price - ¥ 70). Nuggets aren't really tasty, but fries are crispy and lightly salted. After our late lunch, we continued to explore the fair until 3.45pm.

Guangzhou metro

Canton Fair Complex

McD

Coca-Cola and French fries

Big Mac

Chicken McNuggets 5pcs

Canton Fair Mascot

Canton Fair Complex

Buggy service in Canton Fair

Spotted PWTC in Guangzhou

We decided to leave early before the peak hours and took the metro from Pazhou to Guanghou East Railway Station (¥ 4 per person). During the metro line exchange, we both were confused since we got the wrong metro on Line 3, which proceeded to Shipaiqiao Station instead of Linhexi Station. We eventually got back on track and arrived at Guangzhou East Railway Station at 5pm. As usual, we have to scan our bags before we enter the train station. We purchased our Guangzhou-Shenzhen train tickets online at trip.com because buying at the ticketing machine requires a local phone line (Price - RM 75.62 per person for a first-class seat, including a processing fee of RM 10).

At the departure gate, we need to scan our passports, and our train departs on time at 6pm. The boarding will end 5 minutes before departure. Both of us got the aisle seat and sat facing backwards in the train's traveling direction. We reached Shenzhen Railway Station in 1 hour and 5 minutes.

Guangzhou East Railway Station gate 4 entrance

Mineral water - ¥ 3 from a convenience shop inside Guangzhou East Railway Station

Guangzhou East Railway Station

First class seat

We walked back to our hotel and went out again for dinner. We asked the hotel staff about nearby dining options. He directed us to use the hotel's backdoor, turn left, and walk all the way until we saw a shopping mall. The location turned out to be King Glory Plaza! This would be our fourth time dining at this mall.

We returned to Hakka Yu for their salt-baked chicken. We waited for a seat for almost twenty minutes. It's nearly 8.30pm when it's our turn, and they've run out of salt-baked chicken. So we ordered their Hakka savory chicken, traditional radish and beef brisket pot and roasted shrimp with soy sauce and sugar. The Hakka savory chicken doesn't taste good. It's dry and has a chalky texture. However, the traditional radish and beef brisket pot is good. The gravy has a nice savory spicy kick. Ideal when paired with rice. On the other hand, some of the prawns weren't so fresh, but they still tasted ok. That basically concludes our time in Shenzhen and our final meal there.

(Total bill - ¥ 245 including tea charges of ¥ 5 per person and tissue ¥ 2)