China; Tuesday, 07 April, 2026

My last full day in the city and my main focus for the morning was heading up to the Guia Hill, the highest point on the peninsular and home to a small fortification that is also home to a lighthouse, and at least for this hill there is some assistance in getting to the top in the form of the Teleférico da Guia which gets you about two thirds of the way up the hill, so after breakfast I headed out of the hotel and caught the bus round to the base station.

Calling it a base station feels a little too grand for such a small cable car – it took less than two minutes to make the ascent up into the Parque Municipal da Colina da Guia, which I then had a wander through until I reached the peak of the hill and the site of the fort.

My first stop at the fort was the small complex of tunnels, the Galerias Subterrâneas do Monte da Guia that run through the base of the fort from one side to the other and house a small exhibition on their role. Then it was up into the fort itself for a look around. The fort houses a small chapel which was open to look around, but the lighthouse itself is closed as it’s still in use for its intended purpose.

I headed back down through the park and then down the hill into the lower Jardim da Flora located beneath the main part and home to some fountains, a small petting zoo and a very nice café where I was able to get a very filling lunch.

A short distance from the Jardim da Flora is the much more impressive Jardim de Lou Lim Ioc, laid out in traditional style around a lake with pagodas bridges and lots of carefully manicured paths. I spent quite a bit of time wandering around the park before heading over to the nearby Praça do Tap Seac, a large square that once again feels like it’s straight out of Portugal with the very Portuguese buildings around the edge and then the mosaic tile floor.

From the square it was a 20 or so minute walk across the city to reach the final stop of the afternoon the Jardim Luís de Camões, nowadays a public park, but at one time was the grounds of a colonial era mansion. The house still exists and is the Fundação Oriente but wasn’t open to visit. Next door is a reminder of the British presence in the area with the small Anglican Morrison Chapel and Cemetery, constructed for the East India Company and the final resting place for several of the company’s local representatives.

The park itself is quite a lot larger than it looks from the front, after a relatively narrow entrance as it starts to climb up the hill it expands out into quite a large space. At the top of the hill there are viewpoints over the surrounding city and parkland, and then just below them the shrines of the Tempolo Yu Hong.

Having taken in the park I made the 15-minute walk back to the hotel for a well-deserved dip in the swimming pool. As an unheated outdoor pool, even in a warm country I was expecting the water to be relatively cool, but in the end the water was effectively the same temperature as the air, which meant the only thing that changed was the humidity went from 96-98% to well over 100%.

I had a long swim and then headed back up to my room to shower and freshen up before waiting for the sun to set and then catching the bus back round to the Jardim de Lou Lim Ioc. Many of the parks in the city are open until 10pm or even midnight so it’s possible to wander around them after dark and this turned out to be an even more interesting park after dark with the gently lit paths.

From the park I wandered over to the Túnel Pedonal da Colinada da Guia, a modern foot tunnel that has been dug underneath Guia hill and links the central part of the city down to the Outer Harbour. I walked through the tunnel and then headed down to the bus stop in the Outer Harbour to catch the bus back into the centre of town where I grabbed a late dinner before heading back to the hotel and to bed.