3 Days in Guangzhou, Hour by Hour

Yes, comfortably. The city is flat, dense and well served by metro, and its appeal is spread across neighbourhoods and meals rather than concentrated in one must-see site. Three days covers old Canton, the modern riverfront and a proper morning tea without any rushed mornings.

Both are short high-speed rail hops, which makes the Pearl River Delta easy to combine. But they are separate destinations with their own guides, and adding either means a fourth and fifth day rather than compressing these three. Note that travelling to Hong Kong, China involves a separate border crossing and entry requirements.

Mostly range and freshness rather than technique. Overseas Cantonese menus tend to be a narrow, travel-hardy subset — the steamed, the soupy, the seasonal and the offal-based dishes largely do not export. Morning tea is the clearest example: the format itself, not just the dumplings, is what does not travel.

It depends on what you are travelling for. For monuments, no — Beijing and Xi'an have more. For food, it is arguably the single most rewarding city in China, and it gives you a southern, Lingnan counterpoint that neither Beijing nor Shanghai provides. Three days is the right size for that.