Guangzhou — Cantonese Heritage (1hr)

The Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link turns a city that used to mean an overnight trip into a same-day one: the fastest services cover the 142 kilometres from West Kowloon to Guangzhou South in 46 minutes, and immigration for both sides happens before you board, inside a co-located "Mainland Port Area" built into the West Kowloon terminus itself, so there is no second passport check at the other end. Hong Kong permanent residents of Chinese nationality travel on a Home Return Permit rather than a passport or visa; permanent residents who are not Chinese nationals use a separate mainland-issued travel permit. Nationals of 50 countries — most of Europe plus Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea and several Gulf and Latin American states — can already enter mainland China visa-free for up to 30 days under China's nationwide unilateral exemption. Nationals of a further 57 countries, including the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, can use the 240-hour visa-free transit policy if they hold a confirmed onward ticket to a third country or region and enter through one of its designated ports. Check the current country and port lists with China's National Immigration Administration before you book, and always carry a passport rather than just a Hong Kong ID card. Once you arrive, Guangzhou South connects onward by metro into a city with two very different reasons to visit. The Canton Tower dominates the skyline at 602 metres including its antenna, a twisted hyperboloid structure that briefly held the title of world's tallest tower after opening for the 2010 Asian Games. Its indoor observation deck sits 449 metres up, and above that a rooftop deck at 488 metres, the world's highest and largest outdoor observation platform when it opened in December 2011, lets braver visitors walk a 180-metre open-air skywalk around the tower's waist. For a slower, older Guangzhou, the Chen Clan Academy in Liwan District is the counterpoint: an 1894 ancestral hall and school built by 72 branches of the Chen clan, its nineteen buildings and six courtyards covered in wood carving, pottery ridge sculpture and brick relief depicting classical opera scenes. It now houses the Guangdong Folk Art Museum and has been a nationally protected cultural relic since 1988. Fares on the Express Rail Link are set monthly in Hong Kong dollars based on China Railway's yuan pricing, so there is no fixed fare figure; check the current price before you book.