Come on ride the train.....

One of the best decisions we made was to use the metro in Guangzhou. You can find a great website/app here. It doesn't require internet to use it while in country. Riding the metro, especially to get back and forth from the Garden to the China hotel is the way to go. We felt very comfortable, even at 9 pm, because you literally walk out the hotel doors and straight into the metro station at both hotels. The metro is very busy at all the hours we rode (9 am-9pm) and that also helped us feel safe. Dorothy and I decided we'd do a photo tutorial in hopes that some other families would be emboldened to use the metro and save some cash! (at $1 a ticket, it beats a cab or driver by a ton)

Step 1. Walk out your hotel and down into the metro. You will see ticketing machines. They only accept relatively crispy 5 or 10 yuan bills or 1 yuan coins.  Most places you want to go will cost 5-7 yuan per person.

Step 2: Choose English on the touchscreen and look on the map for your final stop. We were headed to Zhongshanba, where there are a lot of children's clothing malls. Then to the right of the screen you can choose how many tickets you want. It will calculate your cost. 

(Yuexiu park is our starting point from Marriott China Hotel on Blue Line 2. To go to either the Children's Markets or the Garden, you will be going North to the Red Line 5 and changing trains at Guangzhou Railway Station.)

(below is your instruction cheat sheet on machine) 

Step 3: insert $ and gather change and green tokens at bottom of machine. 

Step 4: scan your green token on top of turnstyle. and have the most responsible adult  KEEP it until you arrive at your destination.

Step 5: head down the MASSIVE escalator, which will have the color of the metro line you are boarding. Remember not to do any karate with other passengers (see photo below)

Step 6. When you reach the bottom of the escalator, you will know which side to board by knowing what stop you need to change trains to reach your final destination (in our case, it was the Guangzhou Railway Station). The direction the train is going is clear by the starting point on the map above the boarding doors (Yuexiu Park- location of Marriott China Hotel) and the bold-faced stops to come, whether it was to right or left of original stop. 

You are supposed to wait to the side and wait until people exit to board (see yellow arrows) but this is China and everyone just pushes everyone else and gets where they are going. 

When you are on the train, you can track your progress by watching the blinking lights. 

 Step 7: Changing trains is not too bad. You will get off at your change stop and see signs for how to get to the other metro line. In our case there were clear arrows to get to Red Line 5. You will not need your token at this stop. Just follow the arrows up and down stairs and escalators until you get to another set of trains.

Step 8: remember to look at the signs above the trains in bold to see which direction the train is going again. At Guangzhou Railway Station, you can take one train to the Garden (Taojin stop), or the other train to the Children's clothing markets (Zhongshanba stop). 

 Step 9: once you arrive at your destination, often you will be able to determine which door (Letters A, B, C, D) to exit by reading this sign. Each exit takes you to a different side of the street. If you end up at the wrong one, it's not a huge deal. You just cross the street above ground. Or you can come back into station and take the other exit. You won't need to enter the paid zone to do this. 

 Step 10: as you exit, deposit your green token in the slot and walk through. Congrats! You did it!

List of useful stops: 

- Yuexiu Park (China Marriott Hotel) Blue Line 2

- Taojin (Garden Hotel) Red Line 5

- Chen Clan Academy (beautiful historic home/museum) Yellow Line 1

- Airport South (GZ airport) Orange Line 3 

- Hanxi Changlong (Chimelong Safari Park shuttle bus) Orange Line 3

-Zhongshanba (street full of children's markets within 5 blocks) Red Line 5

Here is a list of places to explore in GZ with their corresponding stations.