Dongshankou Route

What Dongshankou is

Dongshankou is an old residential quarter on the east of Guangzhou, in Yuexiu District. In the early twentieth century, returned overseas Chinese and the well-off built western houses here, and hundreds of these "mansions" still stand in the lanes. Red-brick walls, arched windows, gardens buried in green — many are now converted into cafes and small shops. Unlike the downtown din, the food here lives in slowed-down time. A morning begun with pineapple bun and milk tea, a cup of coffee dripped under a mansion's high ceiling, a bowl at a lane dessert shop. More than roaming, this is a street for settling into one place.

Following cafes and sweets

This street's food layers the Hong Kong cafe culture — bingshi and cha chaan teng — over Cantonese sweets. The morning is pineapple bun: a sugar-crusted round with cold butter tucked in, paired with silk-stocking milk tea. The tea is several black teas strained through a cloth sack and deepened with evaporated milk. In the converted mansions, more shops now drip coffee by hand from beans you choose. Sweet comes as ginger milk curd — a bowl set by pouring warm milk onto ginger juice — and mango-pomelo sago. At the bakeries, fresh egg tarts still tremble. A light sweetness and slow time: that is the core of the old Dongshan taste.

How to walk this route

Starting from Metro Lines 1 & 6's Dongshankou Stn, begin walking from Shuqian Road. First, a breakfast of pineapple bun and silk-stocking milk tea at a bingshi; tables are usually shared, so take a seat before ordering. From there turn into the lanes of Xinhepu and Peizheng Roads, and as you pass the red-brick mansions, converted cafes appear here and there. Rest over a hand-drip coffee at one, and in the afternoon take a bowl of ginger milk curd or mango pomelo sago at a dessert shop. Close by picking a fresh egg tart at a bakery. This route is less a food walk than a street stroll of settling into places one by one. Popular cafes crowd on weekends and seats are few. Prices and hours are a guide, and the converted old buildings can change their open days, so check on the spot. Payment is mostly by phone.