Any idea what the leaves looked like? Did they drop any fruits? Without a better photo or detailed description, identification is near impossible.

Unfortunately I don't have a sample of what a leaf looks like. Sorry! I'm fairly certain it didn't drop any fruit.

For what it's worth, Guangzhou is in a subtropical climate, and is warm and moist nearly the full year.

Many thanks for the response salicaceae.

Any idea even what family of types of trees have those unusual "weaving" type of branches?

If it's helpful here's what is probably the only other photo I have of these trees. This one (not of much better quality) shows the roots a little more clearly.

By the way, these photos were taken in 1996.

Need to see leaves to ID it.

Trunk/bark looks alittle like (American) Black locust. Isn't there a legume native to China similar to BLocust? Can't remember it...

Hmm. Black locust. Let me look into that.

"Any idea even what family of types of trees have those unusual "weaving" type of branches?"

Are those "weaving type of branches" in the first photo instead aerial prop roots along the trunk? If so, could this be some species of banyan tree? How about Ficus religiosa?

-m

Here is a link that might be useful: Photo of ancient banyan at Guangxiao Temple

Wow, IshCountryGal, I think you could be right! That picture you included does look similar. And I know there are banyans in Guangzhou. Thank you so much for your wise eye.

I'm looking at some other images of banyans in southern china to see if I can double check. I think you're right.

The trees in the second photo look different from those in the first. Might they be a different species?

I tried photoshopping your first photo to see if the trunk details show up better.

-m

Chinese elm, lol. I can't make out much from the photos. That's all I've got.

+oM

I was going to say an elm judging by the pictures/growing shape. Leaves would tell the whole story unfortunately.

Banyan is pretty common tree in southern China. Chinese Elm has winged fruit and massive cluster of flowers in the spring time. Mostly grow in northern part of China.

According to Tony's description "I'm fairly certain it didn't drop any fruit". Then it is not a Chinese Elm.
Tony, did you ever see this tree grow any air roots? If it has air roots, then I think it is Banyan tree; if it does not, it may be some other trees. Any picture of leave will help narrow down.

Not sure of Tony's level of general plant awareness, so his or her being 'fairly certain it didn't drop any fruit' does not necessarily mean it developed no winged elm seeds. Just saying.......I really have no idea what this tree is.

+oM

Total shot in the dark here. Chinese scholar tree. It's a legume and is near a school.

Thanks everyone for the thoughts. I think from what I've heard so far, and the images that I've looked at online, the banyan family sounds most likely. I don't remember air roots or fruit happening; but I wasn't really paying all that much attention to the tree in that way at the time; I spent a lot of time under the tree, but not (unfortunately) looking at the tree. So wisconsitom's skepticism may be well placed.

I've been trying to contact some old friends in Guangzhou to see if they can go by the school and photo a leaf or two. No luck on that front yet. It was 15 years ago of course...

ps: IshCountryGal, thank you for going to the effort of photoshopping my photo!