China · Guangdong · Guangzhou
Liwan District, Guangzhou — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Liwan District is an old quarter of Guangzhou, split by the Pearl River into Xiguan and Fangcun.
About Liwan District
Where to stay in Liwan District
Each area has its own feel; here's who each one suits.
Liwan District suits travellers who want the older grain of Guangzhou. Xiguan holds most of the beds. Its lanes near the Chen Clan Academy and the Cantonese Opera Art Museum put arcaded shophouses, teahouses and canal walks within a short stroll, while Shamian keeps a quieter European-built waterfront across a footbridge.
Fangcun sits apart. That southwestern half, across the Pearl River, is more residential and better reached by metro than on foot.
About Liwan District
What are the main landmarks in Liwan District?
Craft and worship. The Chen Clan Academy anchors the district, its roof ridges crowded with ceramic figures and its ancestral halls hung with carved timber screens, gilded panels and painted friezes. Nearby the Cantonese Opera Art Museum keeps that stage tradition alive.
On the Shamian sandbank stands the Shamian Christian Church, a small Gothic hall raised for the foreign concession. The Memorial to the Shakee Massacre marks the bund where 1925 protesters were shot.
What is the history of Liwan District?
Liwan's story reaches back to the Qin dynasty. Its western Xiguan quarter grew wealthy on Cantonese trade, and the merchant Chen lineages left the Chen Clan Academy as a monument to that money and learning. Shamian came later.
The sandbank became a foreign concession, walled off and edged with churches such as the Shamian Christian Church. Blood marked it too. The Memorial to the Shakee Massacre recalls the 1925 killing of demonstrators along the waterfront that runs beside the Pearl River.
Where is Liwan District?
The Pearl River cuts Liwan in two, with Xiguan on the northeast bank and Fangcun spread across the water to the southwest.
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Updated July 2026