Tianjin

Tianjin is a port city in northern China, on the Hai River near the Bohai Sea, governed directly by the central government. Its name means ‘heavenly ford’, given by the Yongle Emperor of the Ming, who crossed the river at this point.

The Port of Tianjin, built out into the Bohai Sea at Binhai, handles much of the sea trade of Beijing and the north of China. Airbus assembles A320 jets at a plant near the airport, its first final assembly line outside Europe. Guifaxiang, a shop of the old city, sells the crisp twisted dough sticks called mahua, and Goubuli makes the steamed buns that carry its name.

A walled garrison town was founded at the river crossing in 1404, where the Grand Canal met the Hai River and grain boats passed on their way to Beijing. Tianjin was opened to foreign trade in the 1860s, and Britain, France, Japan and other countries held concessions along the river. The Five Great Avenues, in the former British concession, keep hundreds of villas built for merchants and officials in the early 20th century, in styles from Tudor to Spanish. Zhang Boling founded Nankai Middle School and then, in 1919, Nankai University, and Zhou Enlai, later the premier of China, studied at both.

The Tianjin Eye, a Ferris wheel built on top of the Yongle Bridge, turns above the Hai River in the center of the city. In Yangliuqing, a town in the west of the city, painters have made colored woodblock prints for the Chinese New Year since the Ming dynasty. The clay figurines of the Zhang family workshop, known as Clay Figure Zhang, show characters from opera and daily life with finely painted faces. Tianjin is also known for xiangsheng, comic dialogues of puns and quick replies that are performed in the teahouses of the old city.