September 30, 2026
Conference in Guangzhou; then up its tower and, oh, the view!
The fall-2026 conference marathon is in full swing, and this is coming to you (not quite) live from our Russian++ partner conference in Guangzhou, China. It’s all as per: ~100 key partners representing 90+ companies from 30+ cities. Meetings, hugs, presentations, and technical and commercial sessions – all in a day’s work!
And here we are – all set to kick off:
A while later – full house!
As usual, I opened with a keynote:
After that there was plenty more – some of it not for broadcast, the rest of little interest to the general reader. But come evening there was a gala dinner – and it really was special:
Southern Chinese seafood cuisine: my favorite!
Like I say – real special! Only it was a bit on the hot side: 30+°C and with no breeze – real muggy. Still, it’s the south and the tropics, after all!
Next up was a short sightseeing and cultural program. The main event – the Guangzhou TV Tower, which is second on the list of the world’s tallest TV towers (only Tokyo’s is taller). As you can surely imagine, the views over the city from up there went on forever… – kind of: alas, everything was shrouded in the typical Chinese haze, and the horizon was nowhere to be seen ->
Still, you can step out into the “fresh air”, but, up top on the observation deck in September that means a muggy, shimmering heat haze. It’s basically an open-air hammam at an altitude of 450m!
Alas, I beat an ignominious retreat from up there and passed on riding this circular route around the tower – for a separate ticket, tourists are seated in egg-shaped pods and slowly trundled around on rails:
I highly recommend getting up there, but at a cooler time of year.
Next on the itinerary – a spot of culture and history…
China’s Cultural Revolution hit the south of the country hard, and left practically no historical monuments. Therefore, from the tourist’s point of view, Guangzhou looks a bit more modest than the temples of Beijing, the old city of Xi’an, and, for that matter, many other places in all corners of the Middle Kingdom. As a result, there’s precious little in the city of historical interest. But if you dig around, there are a few places; for example, the Chen Clan Academy.
The complex was built at the end of the 19th century (so – not all that ancient), and the money for its construction was raised in a rather unusual way (to me, at least): a special hall was set aside for “memorial tablets”, where the “investors” could have their ancestors’ names added. What’s more, the closer to the center a tablet was placed, the more expensive the spot.
Traditional Chinese lions:
Since the complex also took a battering down the years (WWII and so on), it made it into modern times in a pretty sorry state. The lions had to be dug out of the ground, and this one, for instance, even lost a fang… But at least it held on to the orb in its mouth:
Inside it’s really pretty, and the guide told us all sorts of stories – but I won’t relay what I recall here; if interested there’s that novelty called the internet )
An evening stroll around the historic Yongqing Fang district (永庆坊) is definitely the way to go…
This is where, over a hundred years ago, European merchants settled and did business with China through trade zones that had been opened up just a touch. Hence the architecture here is a Euro-Cantonese mix, and it all looks very picturesque.
Better not look too far – or too closely – beyond the historical quarter, but the little bridge is lovely:
You could wander endlessly through the maze of little streets, past all sorts of little shops and cafes:
And all in all, it’s really nice and contemplative here:
Locals of the fairer sex use the picture-perfect backdrops for their TikToks and photo shoots, dressing up in traditional Chinese clothes – they really love doing that around here:
And then they stroll along Guangzhou’s narrow little streets:
// Well, we like to have a bit of dressing-up fun ourselves: one time it was we carnival gear in Venice; another time – Scottish kilts :)
The view from my hotel window:
Yes – pure techno-China:
But we’re not saying goodbye to Guangzhou just yet – there’s another fascinating outing ahead. On the river! All about that in the next post…
