- Website
- www.gbiac.net/en ↗
- Address
- Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, South Area, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
- Serves
- Pearl Garden Hotel (Huangpu District), Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Pearl Garden Hotel, Vanke Shangcheng Yufu
- Pick up
- Gates A1-6, B11-13 (Terminal T1)
- Advance?
- Walk-up OK
¥25–35 buys you a no-transfer ride straight to certain factory hotels
Airport Express Line 4 is an airport bus from CAN serving outlying and industrial districts, not central Guangzhou. It runs from the airport bus station at T1/T2, with a journey time of about 70–110 minutes depending on distance and how many intermediate stops you hit. Think of it as a point-to-point link for specific zones, used heavily by locals heading to factory areas.
One-way tickets cost around ¥25–35, sold at the official airport bus counter near arrivals in T1 and T2. Card acceptance can be patchy, so have ¥100 cash handy to cover a round trip. These peripheral lines are less clearly advertised on the English boards; you often only see Chinese district names. If your hotel sits directly on Line 4’s route, that single fare can be cheaper than a ¥120–180 Didi ride.
Buses run roughly every 30–60 minutes, but Line 4 tends to finish earlier in the evening than central routes like the main downtown express. Regulars say they switch to Didi after about 21:00, because a missed last departure can mean another 60–90 minutes lost sorting backup options. For early-morning flights, check the first bus time the day before; schedules shift and updates are not always mirrored in English.
Onboard, expect basic coach seats, front-door boarding, and luggage bays underneath. Unlike the downtown airport buses that often have staff loading bags, several reviews say Line 4 is more DIY: you lift your own suitcase into the hold and grab it again at your stop. One TripAdvisor poster mentioned “mainly locals on board and no English signs,” so watch the stop sequence or track the ride in a maps app.
What regulars do: factory visitors often ask their hotel or local contact to confirm that Line 4 still serves their exact stop, as routes have changed over the past few years. Some hotels near industrial parks keep a printed timetable at reception and will write the stop name for you in Chinese characters. If your arrival lands after 20:00, many repeat visitors pre-book a Didi as a backup, budgeting ¥150–200 in cash or app credit.
Practical tip: before you leave the terminal, show your hotel address in Chinese at the bus counter and ask staff to circle the exact Line 4 stop on a paper slip; hand that slip to the driver when boarding so they know where to drop you.