Located less than 100 miles to the Southeast of Beijing, Tianjin is the fourth largest city in P. R. China with over 11 million people. With a unique blend of history, culture, architecture, folk art, Tianjin is old and new, ancient and modern at the same time. Shiny skyscrapers and shopping plazas made from glass and steel shoot up among rows of red-bricked old residential houses; silky Audi’s and Chryslers zooming their way among the sea of bicycles; loud and deafening rock ‘n roll music smashing into your face among traditional Peking opera; and mini-skirt with mini-ipod school girls enjoying the same live shows as 80-year-olds. 

The city is lively and vibrant by day, as any big city in China today, its businesses flourishing, its people thriving. When night falls, that’s when Tianjin shows its true color to travelers. Hai River banks are decorated with festivity lights all-year long; street vendors line up the hutong’s inviting passers-by for a bite; street artists showcasing their talent while making a buck or two, drawing, dancing, singing, calligraphing, magic, wushu, wood cutting, whatever your hobbies are, you’ll find people with similar interests and they are eager and proud to share their work with travelers! 

For a history buff, there are many ancient temples in Tianjin – Great Benevolence Temple, Dule Temple, Confucius Temple, The Great Mosque, Notre Dame des Victories, to name just a few. The famous “Ancient Culture Street”, a recreation of Qing Dynasty style marketplace paved with marbled streets and stone houses with authentic tiled roofs, buzzes with boutique stores and food vendors that attract an average of 140,000 visitors per day. 

For architecture lovers, Tianjin is a dream-come-true, with its rich collection of all variety of architecture styles, from traditional, ancient Tang Dynasty temples to heavily-Western-influenced modern museums, from pointed Gothic-style cathedrals to typical Chinese-style symmetric Si-he-yuan.