China · Guangdong · Guangzhou
Tianhe District, Guangzhou — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Tianhe District is the commercial heart of Guangzhou, an eastern district set back from the Pearl River around Zhujiang New Town.
About Tianhe District
Where to stay in Tianhe District
Where you base yourself shapes the visit — here's the character of each area.
Tianhe holds most of the modern hotel stock in Guangzhou. Base yourself in Zhujiang New Town if you want the towers of the central business district, the Guangzhou International Finance Center overhead, and the widest choice of rooms in the district. Stays near the Guangzhou East railway station suit anyone catching a fast train or the metro.
It works for a first city visit. Rooms thin out east of the Tianhe Sports Center, so keep to the core streets rather than the outer stretches toward Baiyun District.
About Tianhe District
What are the main landmarks in Tianhe District?
Three anchors mark out Tianhe. The Tianhe Sports Center, the stadium complex that gave the district its shape, sits at the meeting point of the metro lines and lends its name to the streets around it. Rising to the south, the Guangzhou International Finance Center towers over Zhujiang New Town, the financial core that has drawn the tallest building in the district.
The Guangzhou East railway station closes the set. It ties Tianhe to the wider rail network of Guangzhou.
What is the history of Tianhe District?
Tianhe began as farmland east of the old walled city of Guangzhou. It stayed rural for a long time. The turning point came with the Tianhe Sports Center, built for the National Games of 1987 on what had been open ground beyond Yuexiu District.
Around that stadium the streets filled in, and the district grew from a sports venue into the commercial and financial centre that Zhujiang New Town now anchors. Fields gave way to towers.
Where is Tianhe District?
Tianhe sits east of central Guangzhou, a lowland district that reaches from the north bank of the Pearl River up toward the hills below Baiyun District.
More areas in Guangzhou
Updated July 2026