You are unlikely to find any information about this place but if you want your kids to see a very tall waterfall, sip fresh coconut water with their feet literally in the lake and have fun in the flower fields then the places I mention might just be your next weekend destination. As a bonus, it will cost you next to nothing!

Would I travel deep into Huadu just for Vanilla World? No, but if you combine a visit there with a trip to Timian Town scenic area, you’ve got yourself a lovely weekend.

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This was another one of those trips when we didn’t really know what to expect as there was frustratingly little information online about the place we had chosen, even in Chinese! And we were bringing our friends along-no pressure! How did we choose the place then? Based on a single, old article which mentioned a large waterfall. That’s it. We were driving hoping for the best but prepared, maybe not for the worst, but certainly for things to have changed and potentially feeling disappointed. This is why we decided to combine a trip to Timian Town with another family-friendly attraction-Vanilla World, which has been advertised quite well, at least on Xiaohongshu.

Let’s start with Vanilla World. Online you’ll find stunning photos of beautiful, colourful flower fields so imagine our dismay at arriving and seeing nothing but a run-down theme park. Welcomed by an unpleasant smell and hardly anyone around, we weren’t quite sure if we should even venture inside. Glad we did.

Yes, equipment could do with a spruce up but you know what, our kids had a really great time! There were no queues, no noise and with only a couple of other families there, on a weekend (!), we had the whole theme park practically to ourselves! It was the most relaxing theme park visit ever! Once kids let us drag them away from bumper cars and tyre slides (so much fun!), we entered the, arguably, much more appealing part of Vanilla World.

Miles and miles of pleasant walking paths among stunning flower fields. Now, we all know kids don’t exactly show much appreciation for flowers in general but luckily there were also family bikes, open-air mini train, swings, a camping ground, a playground and lots of bits and bobs to entertain the little ones, enabling us all to have a wonderful time. I will say though that we were blessed with sunny, gorgeous weather, which made everything so much nicer. I remember walking around waiting for, well, vanilla smell to hit my nostrils but that never happened. There were plenty of vanilla orchids around though.

To my surprise, turned out you could stay overnight at Vanilla World, if you felt so inclined, as they had cabins. You can set up your own tent and camping gear in a dedicated meadow, have a BBQ, and I’m sure it’d be quite pleasant though I did not see a restaurant within the grounds and the site itself could do with some TLC…If you’re kids are water play fans, there is a separate water park right next to Vanilla World. We did not try it as I was a bit concerned about its condition though in hindsight, perhaps we should have given it a shot. Keep reading to find out why…

After spending a good number of hours there and definitely NOT seeing it all (it’s big!), we headed to Timian Town for a bit of evening entertainment and much needed rest. As the name suggests, it is a small and ordinary town located around a large lake. By the time we arrived, it was dark and so we could not see if there was indeed a waterfall there or not and couldn’t really hear it! Did we come all this way for nothing? Not to worry though, the twinkling lights, hundreds of tiny stalls selling all sorts of snacks and drinks, busy but chilled vibe, as well as pleasant live music were worth the drive and soon we found ourselves relaxing in camping chairs, enjoying coconut water and Chinese desserts while random kids were swimming past us! You read that right, the ‘night market’, as some would call it, was located along the lake and the local authority clearly thought it’d be fun for the walkway to be partially submerged! So there we were, stunned to see the locals making the most of this bizarre yet amusing facility. Let me just clarify that the water level on the walkway was too high for young kids to actually walk on and so most ‘swam’ and adults happily dipped their feet in the not-so-crystal-clear lake. Despite having to keep an extra watchful eye on our kids, who were desperate to join others in the water (of course!), we had a lovely evening and headed back to the hotel fully satisfied.

I want to recommend Chonpines Hotel but at the same time I’m not sure I should. I booked it because of it’s ridiculously low price(average weekend price-250rmb per family room!), great condition and lovely family rooms. Kids were in 7th heaven when they realised they could take the Peppa Pig and Frozen toys home! They had tents, slides, soft toys, toiletries, bedding. It exceeded our expectations. That hotel provided us with exactly what we needed: a comfortable bed near a large playground and within a 20min drive to both places we wanted to visit. If you ever stayed in Huadu countryside, you know that the choice of family-friendly hotels is not exactly huge…but I realise that for some that hotel might be too basic. The breakfast was a typical Chinese buffet with a small number of options and the building itself was by a main road (we didn’t hear any noise) with no nice views and it was surrounded by unattractive buildings. I’d definitely use it as a base again though!

Next morning we drove back to Timian Town to finally find out if the random article I found was correct. Imagine our joy when we spotted the town’s pride and glory flowing down from a mountain by the lake, shimmering in the sun! We just stood there for a while, wondering why that place isn’t more well known, why does it require Sherlock Holmes-like detective skills to find out anything about it!? This is, frustratingly, often the case with beautiful places in the Chinese countryside…

Immediately, we wanted to know how we could hike up the waterfall but could not find any signs. Normally the waterfalls are out in the countryside, not in the town centre, so we had assumed it must be easy to go up. After driving up Lotus Peak to the viewing platform/temple, which was well worth a visit, we realised that it was sadly no longer possible to hike along the water. Disappointed but not disheartened, we drove higher up the mountain in search of a place, any place, where our energetic kids could play. Soon we saw signs for what looked like a very basic but perfect for young kids attraction with games and a fun pool.

This is where our trip could have ended. Kids would have been happy splashing around to the sound of extremely loud and annoying 80s music. I wonder if Modern Talking know how popular their songs are over here! We were not particularly happy with the cleanliness of the pool though and so, on a whim, decided to have a wander around, hoping to find a better place. I’ll be honest, I lost hope. The location did not look promising. Thank goodness for my husband, a true Boy Scout, who discovered a quieter and cleaner swimming pool just a bit further up the road! You wouldn’t know it was there as it was hidden behind some random buildings. Not only did our kids have a fab time in large pools with many slides and floats, we also ended up having a yummy countryside lunch in the charming restaurant opposite it with outdoor tables, surrounded by bamboo forest, located by a stream, where kids could safely play with their water guns! What a lovely place that was!

Before you pack your kids and type Timian Town into your navigation system, I feel obliged to add that the pool we played at might not suit everyone’s standards. It was clean and fairly well-maintained but let’s not kid ourselves, it was a pool run by a local family, the changing rooms, though fine, weren’t exactly resort quality and it was all outdoor with only some shade cover but the entry ticket was something silly like 20rmb per child and we had a bunch of kids just itching to jump in the water!

Sadly, due to the weather, we had to return home before we could drive to the nearby Yuan Xuan Taoist temple complex, which I’ve been wanting to see for ages! If you’ve got more time on your hands or want to see something else in Huadu, I also recommend Huadu Lake (read about it here) and Nine Dragon Lake (Jiulonghu) scenic area, which is great!

The thing about Chinese countryside is that you could be 5min drive from a really cool place and never know it as there is a severe lack of signage (even in Chinese) and information online. This happened during our last trip to Zengcheng, after which I realised that we had been ridiculously close to several other attractions! I suffer from a really bad FOMO, if you haven’t realised that yet;P Best thing to do is to use one of Trip.com’s hotel location maps, click on ‘Landmarks‘ tab et voilà-it will show you all nearby attractions, even the little known ones:) Of course, unless it is a very well-known place, this is where your investigation begins…

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Info:

Address: Timianzhen, Huadu, Guangzhou and Vanilla World, Huashan Town, Huadu, Guangzhou

Opening times: Vanilla World opens at 9-17.

Getting there: Self-driving is the only option. Both Vanilla World and Timian Town were easy to reach using navigation system.

Parking: All the car parks we used were free!

Food: I strongly recommend bringing your own food to Vanilla World as the choice of snacks is very limited there and there is no restaurant nearby. In Timian Town you will find both proper restaurants as well as plenty of snack stalls by the lake. There were a couple of restaurants right next to the hotel, including a Western one, but we have not tried them. Best meal was definitely the ‘bamboo’ restaurant, I don’t know its name but just keep driving up the mountain and you’ll reach it as it’s at the end of the road. It serves quite standard countryside dishes, like roasted chicken but no English menu.

Price: Vanilla World is a ticketed attraction and it cost 135rmb for a family ticket at the time of our visit(2024). That price does not include the theme park rides, which are priced at 10rmb pp. We bought our tickets at the ticket counters, on the day but I bet there are discounts if you book online through one of the apps, like Douyin.

Facilities: Vanilla World is very pram-friendly, all flat but vast. There are family bikes and EVs for hire. There are some public toilets around but not many. The lakeside in Timian Town is also pedestrian-friendly but I did not notice any public toilets. Might have to pop in to one of many B&Bs located by the lake and use their facilities;)

Age: Vanilla World might appeal to kids as old as 12 but the waterfall and the pool we went to are more for younger kids.