How to spend 48 hours in Foshan, city of ceramics and kung fu legends Bruce Lee and Ip Man
‘Guangzhou’s little brother’ makes a great short getaway for Hongkongers. Mark Sharp gets on the trail of two martial arts legends and takes in the nightlife, a toilet waterfall and the world’s biggest furniture market
Foshan, nicknamed “Guangzhou’s little brother”, is reputed for its cultural life. Besides its protected historical sites, ceramics and furniture shopping and nightlife, it’s also a proud cradle of kung fu. Wing chun grandmaster Ip Man was a Foshan native, as were the family of his most famous disciple, superstar Bruce Lee.
To get a local perspective on its potential for a 48-hour getaway from Hong Kong, I book a room on home rentals website Airbnb and jump on a bus for the 3½-hour ride.
Lecong furniture market
My Airbnb host Lisa (who has “Superhost” status due to many recommendations for hospitality) whisks me 20 minutes south over the Dongping Waterway to Lecong town, Shunde district, home of the world’s largest furniture market. One mall is appropriately named Lecong Furniture Kingdom.
It would take a month to visit the whole of furniture country, which stretches for tens of kilometres and pulls in visitors from around the world. It has so many gigantic malls – specialising in home, garden, office or hotel furniture – that there are hotels in Lecong catering solely to buyers. Visitors from South Asia and the Middle East are served by a string of restaurants on and around Lecong Avenue, including Best of India Curry Palace, Lotus Indian and some named only in Arabic script.
We visit one of the smaller malls – the multilevel Louvre International Furniture Exhibition Centre, which could swallow an Olympic-sized stadium. Endless corridors are packed with everything from slick European brands to artisanal Chinese furnishings.
