Adventures in CHINA
Sightseeing in Tianjin
We managed to do some sightseeing while we were in Tianjin. We were living in the center of town at the Hyatt where the staff took VERY good care of us. We went out for long walks every weekend in order to give housekeeping a chance to clean our room as well as to avoid the "cabin fever" that a room on the 14th floor will induce.
Tianjin is a city of about ten million people, most of them getting around by bicycle. Crossing the streets becomes an acquired skill. The basic rule is: Don't make eye contact with cars or cyclists and they will have to avoid you, this works surprisingly well!!
Here's a view of the Sky Tower looking up from the ground, there is a revolving restaurant at the top.
We were greeted wherever we went by locals wanting to try out their English. Usually the only word they knew was "Hello!". We would usually reply to them in Chinese with "Ni Hao!" (Hello). This would almost always result in a hearty round of laughter from them as they seemed amazed that we could speak their language, although they had just spoken ours.
One of Tianjin's claims to fame is the Tian Ta or Sky Tower. This is the tallest tower in Asia as well as the fourth tallest tower in the world. For a nominal fee you can take an elevator up the tower to get a good view of the city, smog permitting.
Here's the view looking down, you can see the tower is surrounded by water, and get a feel for the scale by the street at the top of the picture.
One of our favorite destinations was the street markets that are all over town. In the center of town on Bin Jiang Lu is the main shopping district. On weekends it is THE place to see and be seen! The street is home to all sorts of shops and department stores as well as street vendors selling all sorts of things from food to almost real name brand items. We walked downtown almost every weekend before 10:00am, as after that, the street would become too crowded to move. We rarely if ever saw another Westerner of any sort on our walks, I don't think there are many in Tianjin, and most of the few that are there seem to prefer to stay in their hotels most of the time. I will have to admit that it can be a little daunting to venture out in a city as large as Tianjin without language skills. It is, however, an extremely safe city to walk in, other than the terrible air quality.
Our excursions through the streets of Tianjin undoubtedly provided the most lasting memories of our time in the big city.
Here's Camille in the downtown shopping district, before the crowd got too dense. I don't think we ever bought anything - it wasn't really the point of getting out.