Circle Pacific - Sun Princess - June 2016: Tianjin

Tianjin, China - Day 20 - 11 July 2016

We arrived into Tianjn (the port for Beijing) a day early due to super typhoon, Nepartak that we were running away from. The plan was now to stay here overnight which gave us an extra day to explore. As we had been to Beijing before we had covered the main sightseeing highlights so we decided to explore locally at Tianjin. I had a private tour booked for the second day which included a trip on the bullet train so one of our friends was lucky enough to be able to secure their private tour guide for the first day as ours was unavailable. Beijing is about a 3 hour drive from Tianjin.

Our tour guide Herbie, from Beijing Tours Guide met us at the port in a mini bus and we set off on the motorway to Tianjin which is about a 50 minute drive from the dock with not much traffic. On the way back to the dock it took us 2 hours as the traffic was very heavy and our Mr Wong went the wong way a couple of times!

Our first stop was to the Italian Style Town which was very quaint and a bit more like a german style town. we strolled through the streets which weren't very busy as it was early in the morning.

We then drove to Jingyuan, the restored house of the last Emperor Puyi. Apart from looking through the house there was an exhibition of the life journey of Puyi since he left Tianjin and to his life in this period. There were a lot of photos of old times which were very interesting. The house was quite grand and set in a beautiful garden behind a high fence which gave him privacy and security.

Before lunch we walked through the back streets to witness how some of the locals live and shop in their daily lives. This was very interesting and very much like the Hutong area in Beijing. It was fascinating to see the locals shopping, washing, cooking, playing cards and generally doing their day to day chores in these little back alley ways that are quite close to the bustling of the city.

Our lunch stop was at the Vienna International which was an upmarket hotel. We had a banquet menu with all dishes in the middle of the table for sharing. An excellent meal was had by all including beer for the men which was extremely cheap. I settled for a shandy which was very cold and refreshing.

After lunch we strolled around Munan Park where there were lots of locals relaxing under trees, talking in huddles and playing cards.

Our last stop was to North Jiefong Road which is the financial street of Tianjin. The street is lined with one bank after another and are all very large grand buildings which could make you think that you were in London. Once again more card games being played on the footpath.

We then headed back on our bus to the port of Tianjin where we overnighted on the ship.

Another pleasant but exhausting day on land.

Quick Facts:

Population: 20,693,000 (2012)

Language: Mandarin Chinese

Country: China

Currency: Yuan (CNY)