Post by Nate M on Sept 26, 2005 20:27:53 GMT 7
So yeah, this has been a while coming. I should have had this here earlier, but I've been a bit busy and a bit more lazy.
Tianjin, for those of you not in the know, is actually the 3rd or 4th largest city in China, (depending on how you calculate the size of Chongqing). It's situated about 120 km southeast of the nation's capital, Beijing, and is generally greatly overshadowed by it's bigger, more bustling neighbor. Despite this, Tianjin has it's own charm, which I came to appreciate quite a bit during my stay there.
Tianjin's history has always been intertwined with that of Beijing's. Built as a port city which helped ship grain, rice, and just about everything else up to Beijing, Tianjin was until the rise of the PRC known as "The Shanghai of the North" throughout most of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Tianjin also served as a major point of defense to Beijing. Subsequently, it thus bore the brunt of much of the walloping issued to China by the major foreign powers throughout the Opium wars, the Boxer Rebellion, the Japanese occupation, and a host of others, I'm sure. It has also been the flashpoint for a significant amount of political activity, such as the Boxer rebellion, anti-Japanese protests (both during the occupation and presently), and the suppression of the f**** g*** movement.
One of the things this has led to is that, (like Shanghai), Tianjin has some of the most diverse European architecture in all of China. It was a major treaty port, and thus contains areas once dominated by the British, French, Belgians, Italians, Germans, Americans, Japanese, and I believe Russians, (maybe a few others as well). Many of these areas have been overrun by commieblock architecture or have fallen into disrepair in the name of erasing the historical shame of foreign occupation. Which is a shame, because these buildings are probably one of the few assetts Tianjin has, in terms of sites worthy of being visited by tourists. Much of it's older Chinese architecture was destroyed by the 1976 Tangshan Earthquake, and only scattered examples remain. Fortunately, it appears that the Tianjin government is finally starting to recognize the value of that architecture, and is beginning to make an effort to restore some of these areas, (although "restoration" itself often takes strange and awkward forms).
In the "New China" that's opened up to foreign investment in the years since that earthquake, Tianjin has, until recently, been left behind it's bigger brothers Beijing and Shanghai, as well as some new upstarts in Shenzhen. A lot of students from these other areas complain at how backward developmentally Tianjin is. However, Tianjin is making huge strides in that department, and is one of the top 3 or 4 fastest growing areas in all of China. The air, once just about the dirtiest in China, is still dirty, but cleaning up considerably. Most times it seems to be a bit better than Beijing's. And the city's downtown is virtually unrecognizeable from just a few years ago, (when you couldn't really tell there was a downtown, just occasional 30 to 40 story buildings scattered about the city). These changes were evident even during the year I was there. Those things will improve even more as the city gears up for the 2008 Olympics, (which will feature several events in Tianjin), and a new high-speed rail-link is created with Beijing which will make it possible to commute between the cities in anywhere between 30-45 minutes.
Tianjin has several notable suburbs worth mentioning (yes, I really like redundancy):[/u][/i]
Tanggu: This is Tianjin's largest suburb, and is situated about 40 km east of the city center along the Bohai Gulf. It is the location of Tianjin's main port, the only public beach in Tianjin that I'm aware of (although I've never been there myself), as well as the bustling new economic hub of TEDA, where most of the rich business laowai are camped out. Tanggu is one of the richer areas of Tianjin, (which is a huge surprise to anyone who had visited the poohole of a city that sat there 3 or 4 years ago when I first briefly visited the area), and there's quite a bit to do in terms of parks, shopping, and I'm told nightlife. It is connected to the main city by several highways, passenger trains, as well as a brand new, state of the art, elevated light rail system which will eventually connect to the renovated Tianjin subway, set to reopen late this year.
Hanggu: Another 35 to 40 minutes north of Tanggu, there is apparently a plan to create a big resort area around a docked Russian Aircraft carrier. I'm not sure, but if you're all as into creaky Russian ships as I am, this place is almost surely destined to become the next Disgraceland, PRC. Stay tuned for updates.
Jixian: Actually closer to Beijing than it is to Tianjin city, this northernmost suburb of Tianjin is most well known for a series of Song dynasty pagodas which were one of the few buildings to survive the '76 earthquake, scenic Pan Shan mountain, and Tianjin's only section of the Great Wall, who's eastern half is highly underrated and a great alternative to the tourist-fest that is Badaling.
Tianjin's nightlife is both bustling and a little disappointing. There is a plethora of bars and clubs up and running, (including it's own bar street), and quite a good handful of them manage to regularly pack in decent crowds. Unfortunately, they almost always tend to bring in the same cover bands playing the same songs. Finding good, original music in this city is something I was sadly disappointed in. Hopefully that will change in the near future.
Until recently, it was pretty difficult for foreigners not around the Nankai/Tianjin university area to find out what's going on in the city. There is an expat magazine (JIN), that tries to be a "That's Beijing" for the city. Unfortunately, it's still got a long, (emphasis on the long), ways to go before the quality of writing lives up to that reputation.
In the past 6 months or so, though, I've tried to get myself networked with a bunch of expats in the city, and have started up my own website, (you saw that plug coming a mile away, didn't you), which tries to create an online resource for people coming into town. It's still got a ways to go, (I'm in the process of a complete overhaul of the site), but it's already shaping up pretty nicely, (even if it looks just like my other site). There's a new messageboard, (just ditched proboards), city guide, photogalleries, classifieds, and a pretty extensive list of Tianjin-related sites. Pretty much everything I didn't mention here should be findable on that site, so instead of continuing to type and type, I'll just give you the url and you can check it out yourself.
www.TianjinExpats.net
Tianjin, for those of you not in the know, is actually the 3rd or 4th largest city in China, (depending on how you calculate the size of Chongqing). It's situated about 120 km southeast of the nation's capital, Beijing, and is generally greatly overshadowed by it's bigger, more bustling neighbor. Despite this, Tianjin has it's own charm, which I came to appreciate quite a bit during my stay there.
Tianjin's history has always been intertwined with that of Beijing's. Built as a port city which helped ship grain, rice, and just about everything else up to Beijing, Tianjin was until the rise of the PRC known as "The Shanghai of the North" throughout most of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Tianjin also served as a major point of defense to Beijing. Subsequently, it thus bore the brunt of much of the walloping issued to China by the major foreign powers throughout the Opium wars, the Boxer Rebellion, the Japanese occupation, and a host of others, I'm sure. It has also been the flashpoint for a significant amount of political activity, such as the Boxer rebellion, anti-Japanese protests (both during the occupation and presently), and the suppression of the f**** g*** movement.
One of the things this has led to is that, (like Shanghai), Tianjin has some of the most diverse European architecture in all of China. It was a major treaty port, and thus contains areas once dominated by the British, French, Belgians, Italians, Germans, Americans, Japanese, and I believe Russians, (maybe a few others as well). Many of these areas have been overrun by commieblock architecture or have fallen into disrepair in the name of erasing the historical shame of foreign occupation. Which is a shame, because these buildings are probably one of the few assetts Tianjin has, in terms of sites worthy of being visited by tourists. Much of it's older Chinese architecture was destroyed by the 1976 Tangshan Earthquake, and only scattered examples remain. Fortunately, it appears that the Tianjin government is finally starting to recognize the value of that architecture, and is beginning to make an effort to restore some of these areas, (although "restoration" itself often takes strange and awkward forms).
In the "New China" that's opened up to foreign investment in the years since that earthquake, Tianjin has, until recently, been left behind it's bigger brothers Beijing and Shanghai, as well as some new upstarts in Shenzhen. A lot of students from these other areas complain at how backward developmentally Tianjin is. However, Tianjin is making huge strides in that department, and is one of the top 3 or 4 fastest growing areas in all of China. The air, once just about the dirtiest in China, is still dirty, but cleaning up considerably. Most times it seems to be a bit better than Beijing's. And the city's downtown is virtually unrecognizeable from just a few years ago, (when you couldn't really tell there was a downtown, just occasional 30 to 40 story buildings scattered about the city). These changes were evident even during the year I was there. Those things will improve even more as the city gears up for the 2008 Olympics, (which will feature several events in Tianjin), and a new high-speed rail-link is created with Beijing which will make it possible to commute between the cities in anywhere between 30-45 minutes.
Tianjin has several notable suburbs worth mentioning (yes, I really like redundancy):[/u][/i]
Tanggu: This is Tianjin's largest suburb, and is situated about 40 km east of the city center along the Bohai Gulf. It is the location of Tianjin's main port, the only public beach in Tianjin that I'm aware of (although I've never been there myself), as well as the bustling new economic hub of TEDA, where most of the rich business laowai are camped out. Tanggu is one of the richer areas of Tianjin, (which is a huge surprise to anyone who had visited the poohole of a city that sat there 3 or 4 years ago when I first briefly visited the area), and there's quite a bit to do in terms of parks, shopping, and I'm told nightlife. It is connected to the main city by several highways, passenger trains, as well as a brand new, state of the art, elevated light rail system which will eventually connect to the renovated Tianjin subway, set to reopen late this year.
Hanggu: Another 35 to 40 minutes north of Tanggu, there is apparently a plan to create a big resort area around a docked Russian Aircraft carrier. I'm not sure, but if you're all as into creaky Russian ships as I am, this place is almost surely destined to become the next Disgraceland, PRC. Stay tuned for updates.
Jixian: Actually closer to Beijing than it is to Tianjin city, this northernmost suburb of Tianjin is most well known for a series of Song dynasty pagodas which were one of the few buildings to survive the '76 earthquake, scenic Pan Shan mountain, and Tianjin's only section of the Great Wall, who's eastern half is highly underrated and a great alternative to the tourist-fest that is Badaling.
Tianjin's nightlife is both bustling and a little disappointing. There is a plethora of bars and clubs up and running, (including it's own bar street), and quite a good handful of them manage to regularly pack in decent crowds. Unfortunately, they almost always tend to bring in the same cover bands playing the same songs. Finding good, original music in this city is something I was sadly disappointed in. Hopefully that will change in the near future.
Until recently, it was pretty difficult for foreigners not around the Nankai/Tianjin university area to find out what's going on in the city. There is an expat magazine (JIN), that tries to be a "That's Beijing" for the city. Unfortunately, it's still got a long, (emphasis on the long), ways to go before the quality of writing lives up to that reputation.
In the past 6 months or so, though, I've tried to get myself networked with a bunch of expats in the city, and have started up my own website, (you saw that plug coming a mile away, didn't you), which tries to create an online resource for people coming into town. It's still got a ways to go, (I'm in the process of a complete overhaul of the site), but it's already shaping up pretty nicely, (even if it looks just like my other site). There's a new messageboard, (just ditched proboards), city guide, photogalleries, classifieds, and a pretty extensive list of Tianjin-related sites. Pretty much everything I didn't mention here should be findable on that site, so instead of continuing to type and type, I'll just give you the url and you can check it out yourself.
www.TianjinExpats.net