Party Pier Plaza

Party Pier Plaza in Guangzhou sits on the grounds of the Zhujiang Brewery, which brewed China's first purpose-built draft beer starting in nineteen eighty-five and ran its steam whistles along this stretch of the Pearl River for three decades before shutting down one night in December two thousand fifteen. The guide traces the city policy that pushed factories out of the urban core, the huge parcel of waterfront land the brewery held onto, and the choice it made to become its own developer rather than simply sell out. Listen for how much of the old works still stands recognizably industrial even now, chimney included.