Pointer (type) + question on the string

The syntax var p * int means that the pointer itself is of type int or that it points to an int value?

Pointer to a value of type int.

Is go string just a byte sequence?

Not really. In C, not C lines, but P lines are used. That is, string is a type structure.

type string struct { len int data *byte } 

Where len is the length of the string, and data is a pointer to the first byte.