Snippets of Tianjin.

Snippets of Tianjin, China.

July 2009.

Around seventeen months ago I started publishing my short story series Challenged in China. Comprised of 18 tales from my first year in China (2009-2010), the collection documents my experiences living and teaching in Beijing in addition to the many travels I undertook across the country.

Now, at long last, I feel it’s time to add all those villages, towns and cities to my location reports library. Those of you who read the short stories when they were published may recall some of the places featured in this new series. Fear not though, there will also be additional photos and memories from those travels not included the first time around.

All the upcoming posts will be snippets articles. Which, as longtime readers know, means I don’t have many photos from those days and what shots I do have are not the best quality.

Back then my photos lay stored on an external hard drive. One fateful day I accidentally knocked it off a table, after which its contents could only be saved after a recovery process carried out by a specialist in Beijing. Sadly those rescued images are grainy thumbnails. #facepalm. Thanks to iCloud (launched two years later), such a disaster could never befall me today.

Travelling Around China 2009-2010.

In any case, where better to kick off this new series than with a look at the very first location I travelled to on my maiden cross-country adventure in China. So without further ado let’s dive into my Snippets of Tianjin.

Photo courtesy of Kang Tyngrwey.

You see the above and below photos? That’s NOT how Tianjin looked when I arrived in the summer of 2009. Today it is nothing short of a megacity, a metropolis home to just under 14 million people that stands as China’s most important manufacturing centre. Oh, and Northeast China’s largest port to boot. 

Photo courtesy of Kang Tyngrwey.

In 2009 Tianjin stood as something of an ugly duckling to nearby Beijing, which is where I arrived from by bullet train. The trip took around an hour, these days they’ve shaved it down to a clean 30.

On arrival I was met by a modest city that clearly had big plans and was very much in transition. Particularly in the central business district where the river came framed by a steel-and-glass backdrop of skeletal high-rises and angular cranes.

Snippets of Tianjin.

I stayed at the crappy Tianjin City Youth Hostel. This was the first of many shady lodgings I suffered in China. For the full lowdown on just how rubbish it was, I refer you to the short story link at the end of the article. From what I can see the hostel probably shut down in 2013 as there are no TripAdvisor reviews from 2014 onwards. I wouldn’t have thought many (if any) people mourned its passing.

I had no plan for Tianjin. Rather, it was just a case of walk, see and breathe it all in. The city was a convenient stop off on the way to Shandong Province where the bulk of those July travels played out. I’d been in China for less than a week, thus it was very much a case of acclimatising and greedily lapping up those first impressions of the country.

It’s hard to overstate just how darn excited I was. Everything felt so fresh and delightfully alien. That unique excitement that can only come from being young, impressionable and travelling a new country for the first time. I remember with fondness my first taste of Fanqie Chao Dan, a Chinese egg and tomato dish that is literally to die for.

Nor could I ever forget the restaurant I had it in. This was my first sighting of a framed Chairman Mao portrait and that first sensation of having a spotlight fall over me as everyone in the room sat staring in open-mouthed fascination.

Snippets of Tianjin.

Soon after, in the business district, I had my first experience of people stopping me to ask for a photograph. The father was nothing short of over the moon when he found out I was from London. It was a lovely moment, but of course I had no idea that this was little more than a novelty that would very quickly wear off. 

Tianjin was also the city that first enlightened me to the great contrasts of travelling around China. Of how in any given street there would be Armani-bag carrying fashionistas striding past grubby street food vendors dressed in little more than rags.

On one road there would be piles of trash and the most foul-smelling sewer imaginable. On the next boulevard, an absolutely spotless sidewalk thanks to the ongoing attention of an ever-present street cleaner.

Reading about today’s city centre attractions in Tianjin, I see a bunch of stuff that didn’t even exist back in 2009. However, one landmark that was around during my visit is the towering 180-tonne Century Clock. Built specifically for the turn of the millennium, this metal giant first rang its bell at midnight to welcome the year 2000.

Twelve sculptures representing the signs of the zodiac surround the quartz clock face. Every morning it plays the song Dongfanghong (The East is Red), China’s unofficial national anthem at the height of The Cultural Revolution.

The Century Clock.

Photo courtesy of Ronggy.

Another structure that certainly catches the eye is Porcelain House, an art museum with a focus on pottery and antiques. Originally an old colonial building, the eccentric artist Zhang Lianzhi purchased it in the late 1990s. Then set about transforming it into today’s visual extravaganza using damaged porcelain. 

Visitors can wander through the house for a modest 60 RMB entrance fee (around $8.50). The centre showcases some of the region’s most impressive porcelain, old and new, in addition to antique furniture and art.   

For the most part Tianjin felt like an unapologetically modern beast. A city where traditional buildings and hutongs were rapidly giving way to a mushrooming sprawl of malls, office blocks and shiny skyscrapers.

Photo courtesy of Kang Tyngrwey.

Still, there were a few surprises here and there. Such as the Roman Catholic St. Joseph Cathedral, completed in 1916. Apparently all the bricks were shipped over from France. And what sturdy bricks they were when you bear in mind the cathedral managed to survive the devastating 1976 Tangshan Earthquake. 

Photo courtesy of Fanghong.

Moreover, I got to sample the city’s last standing collection of traditional Qing buildings (although many were replicas) on the pedestrianised Guwenhua Jie (Ancient Culture Street). 

Snippets of Tianjin.

While not as authentic as some of the stunning traditional architecture I would see across my later travels, it was definitely a happening street packed with craft shops, food stalls and upmarket lantern boutiques. 

Much of that Tianjin stay played out getting to grips with the local food scene. After the resounding egg and tomato success I also paid a visit to Goubuli Restaurant, a renowned Tianjin eatery with a history of serving customers since 1858.

It still makes me chuckle to think of just how raised my eyebrows had become while leafing through Goubuli’s menu. Figuring there would be time to get adventurous later, I settled on a round of the house speciality, Baozi.

The steamed buns that arrived a short time later came individually served in beautifully presented wooden containers. One was filled with soft juicy pork, another with tender flavourful beef, a couple stuffed with crunchy mixed veg and herbs.

Further culinary delights awaited at Nanshi Food Street. an indoor arcade where over 100 establishments offer just about every manner of Chinese cuisine imaginable.

Snippets of Tianjin.

It was here, in a restaurant whose name has long been lost to the vaults of time, that I tried my very first fiery Kung Pao Chicken.

And where I was introduced to Mahua, a sweet dough twist deep-fried in peanut oil.

That experience in Nanshi Food Street was a memorable one, albeit not always for the right reasons. To find out more about my time in Tianjin and the culture shock of my early travels in China, check out my short story Give Me Money!

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