In Guangzhou, the habit of drinking tea with 2 parcels of dim sum is still well and alive but at the city’s first 5-star luxury hotel, this practice is a treasured tradition that sees its dining hall packed daily with patrons from the crack of dawn. A veritable gourmet institution where the dim sums are delectable and the atmosphere nostalgic, the morning and lunch dim sum service at the White Swan hotel are always packed to the brim with many guests turned away hours before the end of service as diners linger over newspapers, tea and piping hot old school favourites. Closed for almost a decade for extensive renovations, most of the long service staff here were redeployed for training whilst waiting for the hotel to re-open. And that the White Swan did, ever more glorious and full of character and in command of luxurious comforts and dedication unmatched elsewhere in the rising metropolis that is Guangzhou.