Guangzhou Impresses With Elegant Business Venues

Guangzhou has focused on “strictly business” since the city’s early years as the major port of the southern Silk Route and in the 17th to 19th centuries as a major harbor of European trade. The foreign outpost on Shamian Island still exists today but principally as a historic district of graceful parks and colonial buildings. Business activity in China’s third-largest city transferred to three principal areas of town: the gigantic sprawling exposition area which is the site of the two giant annual Canton Fair trade shows; the traditional midtown Tianhe business district; and, most recently, the extensive ultramodern riverside Zhujiang New Town, being created to accommodate high-rise office towers housing Fortune 500 companies from around the world.

While the business of Guangzhou is business, foreigners who come to work in town are advised to soften the Western approach of forthrightly “getting down to business.” Cultural competence calls for observing Chinese guanxi, a more graceful approach with a dynamic based on personalized networks. Developing relationships is an essential prelude to commerce, and facilities around town are designed to accommodate that practice with elegant venues for fraternizing, impressing clients at private meals and receptions. Read more