Bus Ride to Xiaoguwei Island: Where City Meets Countryside in Guangzhou | 16 Sep 2023

Описание: 16 September 2023, Guangzhou. Sunny day.

Taking a bus from Diejing Road to the Guangzhou Academy of Painting on Xiaoguwei Island. Route: Lijiao — Nanzhou Road — Dasha Village — Yingzhou Intersection — Xiaozhou Village Entrance — Beitingcun Avenue. Slow bus, watching the scenery unfold.

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When not in a hurry, buses beat the subway.

Mind empties, thoughts drift. You can think about anything—or nothing. Just watch streetscapes scroll by.

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Not just Guangzhou—across the Pearl River Delta, you can suddenly find yourself passing through a village.

Unsure whether you're in the city or countryside—that strange feeling. Skyscrapers one moment, village banyan and ponds the next. Wide roads suddenly narrowing into village lanes, old houses and small shops lining the way.

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Xiaoguwei Island—arrived.

Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Center sits here: 12 universities, over 200,000 students. Construction began in January 2003. Nineteen months later, the first 10 universities opened, enrolling over 38,000 students. In two decades, it transformed from a farming and fishing island into an educational and innovation hub.

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Why was this site chosen?

Some explain it like this: Guangzhou was once a coastal city, but centuries of Pearl River silt built up land, pushing the city farther from the sea. The city's development has always followed the river's course—west to east, then southward, toward the sea. The university town's location aligns with this trajectory. Seemingly偶然, actually inevitable.

Xiaoguwei is surrounded by the Pearl River—west of Luoxi Island, north of Shengwu Island, east of Changzhou Island—naturally isolated. It sits right on Guangzhou's “southward expansion axis”, a key node in the city's development strategy.

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Guangzhou Academy of Painting—here on the island.

Beitingcun Avenue, near University Town South. From the bus window: campus buildings and village houses intermingling. That's Xiaoguwei's character—old and new, urban and rural, all crowded together.

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Where do we begin to understand a city?

With its buses—slow routes, fleeting villages.
With its borders—places where city and countryside blur, where skyscrapers give way to ponds.
With its planning logic—following the river toward the sea, this island on the “southward axis.”

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2023年9月16日，广州。天气晴朗。从叠景路去小谷围岛上的广州画院。线路：沥滘—南洲路—大沙村—瀛洲路口—小洲村口—北亭村大街。公交车慢慢开，一路看风景。
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如果不赶时间，坐公交车比地铁有意思得多。

大脑可以放空，任意识随意流淌。你可以想任何事，也可以什么都不想，只是看一幕幕街景从眼前划过。
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不仅仅是广州，在珠三角其他的城市，一不留神就会进入或者路过一个村子。

不知道自己究竟是在城市还是乡村，这种感觉还挺神奇的。刚才还是高楼大厦，转眼就是村口的榕树和池塘；刚刚还是宽阔的马路，突然拐进窄窄的村道，两边是老房子和小店铺。
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小谷围岛，到了。

广州大学城就在这座岛上，拥有12所高校，20多万大学生。2003年1月，大学城建设全面启动。19个月后，首批10所高校、3.8万多名学生顺利入驻。20年间，小谷围从一座稻香渔耕岛，变成了教育城、创新城。
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了解了一下大学城为什么选在这里。

有人这样说：在古代，广州原本是个海边的城市，却因为年复一年的珠江携带泥沙淤积形成陆地，现在它离海越来越远了。整个广州市的城市发展都是沿着珠江水道由西往东再往南发展，就是珠江流入海洋的这个方向。大学城的选址应沿着广州市发展的方向，所以选在小谷围岛，表面上看是偶然因素，实际上有一些必然性在里面。

确实，小谷围岛西邻洛溪岛、北邻生物岛、东邻长洲岛，四面环珠江，具有天然的相对独立性。它正好位于广州的“南拓轴”上，是城市发展战略的重要节点。
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广州画院，就在岛上。

北亭村大街，靠近大学城南。从公交车窗看出去，校园的建筑和村里的老房子交错在一起。这大概就是小谷围的气质——新的旧的，城市的乡村的，都挤在一起，谁也不让谁。
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我们从何处开始了解一座城市？

从它的公交车开始——从那些慢慢开的线路，从那些一晃而过的村子。
从它的边界开始——从分不清城市还是乡村的地方，从那些“刚才还是高楼，转眼就是池塘”的瞬间。
从它的规划逻辑开始——从珠江入海的方向，从“南拓轴”上的这座岛。
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