Sān (Tianjin)

Tuesday 16 May 2017

Accommodation: Radisson Tianjin, booked on Booking.com. CNY 990 for two nights. Breakfast CNY 100/night.

Another mega city

I didn’t know much about Tianjin before planning my trip and thought it was a smaller city outside of Beijing. The population is over 15 million! Although I didn’t get to spend much time exploring, Tianjin turned out to be one of my favourite places. It seems to be the Europe of China as it has been colonised by various European countries over the years. There are huge sections of the city which look European. We visited ‘Wu da dao’ (The Five Great Avenues) where five parallel streets have architecture from Britain, France, Italy, Germany and Spain.

Train to Tianjin

I had the option of flying to Tianjin from Shanghai or getting the train. Flights were more expensive so I figured I’d go by rail to experience China’s bullet trains and booked my ticket on ctrip.com. I also assumed that Shanghai’s train station would be quite central so I’d avoid having to travel back to the airport, however the train station is literally next door to the airport.

My train to Tianjin left Shanghai at 10:22 in the morning so I left a couple of hours to get there and pick up tickets. If you are getting trains in China, it is advised to arrive at the station at least an hour before to allow time for security (when you enter the station) and the ticket desk as foreigners can’t use the ticket machines. Very different to the UK where you can run onto the platform just before the train doors close. After a 30 minute wait for a taxi at the hotel and then grid locked traffic, I had a very stressful journey to the train station! I arrived in plenty of time and went to the ticket office to collect my ticket before waiting at the departure gate (the station being more like an airport than the train stations in the UK).

I got on the train and put my suitcase in the space for luggage behind the seats. It didn’t take long for my suitcase to be trapped at the back so make sure you leave time before your station to move around the luggage and free your suitcase!

My seat was in a second class carriage and there was a row of three seats and a row of two seats. I had hoped for a nice relaxing journey but was sitting on the aisle and the passengers in the two seats beside me changed a lot so I kept having to get up to let them by. There’s no wifi on the trains which is a bit annoying when you have a six hour journey.

I didn’t have time to pick up train snacks but figured there would be things to buy on the train. I highly regretted this! If you are getting the train in China, I highly recommend that you bring your own food! There is a hot water tap on the trains so you can bring instant noodles, as I saw a lot of people had.

I found my way to the restaurant cart and looked at the menu…entirely in Chinese so I had no idea what was on offer!

I sent a photo of the menu to my colleague Marissa, asking for help and if there was anything without meat in it. Mainly meaty, but she sent me a phrase in Chinese to show to the staff, saying I was vege and asking if there was anything available. A helpful passenger who spoke English appeared to help. Translating between me and the staff, he said their vegetarian option was sold out and asked if I was ok with fish and I said this was fine. I didn’t have enough change for the meal and the lovely passenger offered me some yuan to make up the cost.

The meals are served in a tray with different compartments. I took my tray back to my seat and peeled back the plastic to find rice and breaded fish, mushrooms and…lots of meat! There was a section with ham and eggs and a section with pork belly.

Even eating around the meat, it wasn’t very nice so remember to pack food for your train journeys! Especially if you don’t eat meat, which in general I found quite difficult in China.

With rubbish food and no wifi, I watched the farms and huge cities of China fly from the window as we travelled along at over 300km/h.

 

 

Arriving in Tianjin

When I got off the train in Tianjin, just under six hours later (not bad for 600+ miles), I was met by my colleague Zhongyi who lives in the city. He drove me to my hotel to drop off my bags and took me out for dinner. Knowing I was vegetarian, Zhongyi had picked a restaurant beside a Buddhist temple called Chansu, which only sold vegetarian food.

The menu was entirely in Chinese so he ordered a selection of dishes for us that we had with chrysanthemum tea. And wow – the food was amazing and I’d recommend it to anyone, vege or not.

The final dish we got served was tofu. The waitress brought up a small wooden bucket, poured a little dish of something in and then a jug of soya milk. She set an egg timer for five minutes and both Zhongyi and I were curious as to how this would suddenly turn into tofu.

Five minutes later, she returned and like magic opened the pot to reveal silken tofu. We had it in little bowls topped with a mixture of things likes soy, sesame, nuts and sesame seeds. It was really tasty and light, though I’d imagine not to a lot of ‘Westerners’ taste (I’ve been vege for a few years and have grown to like tofu).

After dinner, Zhongyi drove me back to my hotel, pointing out various things in the city, which has a big European influence. My hotel room was HUGE with fabulous bathroom including both bath, shower and the ever handy toilet phone.

Wednesday 17 May 2017

TUFE

The next morning I met my other colleague, Liz, in the hotel. She was going to spend the next two days in Tianjin with me. She had travelled from Beijing that morning (about 30 minutes by train) and was going to stay in the same hotel as me that night.

Our plan for the day was to travel to Tianjin University of Finance and Economics (TUFE) to meet with three of our students who were there for a year on Exchange and also one TUFE student who is coming to Edinburgh on an Exchange in September.

TUFE had sent a driver to pick me up (which I was very excited about!), and a woman from the uni had come to the hotel to accompany us. When we arrived at TUFE, we were met by one of the senior women (Grace) and taken to the most Chinese meeting room of my trip! It was a big square room, with arm chairs around the sides, facing in. Each chair had a cup and saucer with tea. After formally exchanging business cards (receive the business card with two hands and study it before placing it down in front of you), Grace and I chatted about my trip while a man was snapping away photos with a camera. All very surreal!

After a while, our students appeared and we were left alone in the formal meeting room to chat about their time in China. All three of the students were studying a ‘with Chinese’ course in Edinburgh and I was amazed and so impressed that they were taking classes in Mandarin! Later the TUFE student joined us and I gave her some information about Edinburgh. She chatted with our students and they exchanged WeChat details to keep in touch.

Grace returned and presented me with a gift from TUFE, while the photographer snapped away. What a great momento from my most Chinese meeting ever! I gave a gift of some Scottish snacks.

We all (me, Liz, TUFE staff and students) went through to another room and got a group photo taken. The UK students were in the middle and then said to each other they would probably be asked to move as the most important people should be in the centre of the photo. A few seconds later, the photo was reorganised for Grace and I to be in the centre. With that and my personal driver, I felt very special!

Next on the agenda was lunch at TUFE. Grace and her colleagues took us all down to a student canteen and we were seated behind a partition which had a few big, round tables. A selection of dishes were brought out for us to share. We chatted and enjoyed lunch together while people occasionally made fun of my chop stick ability (which I had thought was pretty good!).

After lunch, TUFE ordered a car to take Liz and I back to our hotel.

Wǔdàdào

It was really hot so Liz and I decided to spend some time working in our rooms before meeting a few hours later in reception.

Although not from Tianjin, Liz has spent a lot of time there so was going to show me some of the sights. We got a taxi to Wǔdàdào, which is the Five Great Avenues. Wǔdàdào has five parallel streets named after five cities of south west China.

We were dropped off by taxi at the end of the avenues which has a big paved area with bars, restaurants and coffee shops.

There were lots of horse and carts trying to attract tourists. It was a hot day and I felt bad for the horses.

Liz and I took a wander down one avenue and back along another. As I mentioned earlier, Tianjin has a lot of European influence. Before the People’s Republic of China was founded, the city was invaded by many foreigners and at one point was shared by nine countries – Italy, Germany, France, Russia, GB, Austria, Japan and Belgium. The result of this is many European style buildings and villas throughout the city. The villas are nice and after spending time in Shanghai, it was a nice change to having skyscrapers as far as the eye can see.

A number of the villas were previously the residence of ‘celebrities’ and there is a sign outside to say why it is protected and who previously lived there. For example, one was the former residence of Chen Guang Yuan (1873-1939) who was born in Tianjin, graduated from Tianjin Military School and was the police head of Beijing-Tianjin section.

There are lots of lovely flowers and trees around the area and a few sculptures dotted about.

All the trees have a QR code which can be used to find out the details of the tree like when it was planted and what it has been treated for.

We walked back along Chongqing Street to the end of the avenues. A sign on the wall told us about the street and it was originally named Edinburgh Street (I live in Edinburgh)!

After our walk, we headed for one of the cafes, Mann Coffee, which is a Korean company. There was a bookshelf with a (fake) book about Edinburgh. It was strange to see a book about home in a Korean coffee shop in China!

It was still very hot so we had some cold drinks before heading back to the hotel and catch up on some work emails. The view from my ‘office’ was a bit different to the one I’m used to and all I could hear was the constant beeping of car horns!  The Chinese really love to beep their horns!

Dinner and dancing

There was a mall across the road from my hotel so, in the evening, I risked my life with the traffic (just as crazy in Tianjin as it was in Shanghai) and went there in search of food. On the way there, I passed a group of ladies dancing. They were dressed in matching outfits and even had matching bum bags so obviously took their dancing quite seriously! I watched them for a while before continuing to the mall.

I did a few loops of the mall, checking out menus before deciding on somewhere with pictures in the menu that looked ok. I ordered some noodle soup to go and took it back to have in my room.

Walking back to the hotel, the dancers had really cranked this up a gear – there were loads of them and they were attracting a crowd! I watched for a while, enjoying witnessing a very Chinese pastime (which I later found out is called ‘Square Dancing’) and deciding it was my favourite thing about China so far!

TUST

The next morning, Liz and I checked out of the hotel and got a taxi to Tianjin train station. We were visiting Tianjin University of Science and Technology (TUST) at their campus outside of the city. We got a train to Tanggu Station and then a taxi before arriving.

My University has a partnership agreement with TUST where students study there for three years before transferring to Edinburgh for their final year. I was meeting with the first set of students due to transfer to Edinburgh a few months later.

As I found with most Chinese students I met who were UK-bound, they didn’t know much about the UK and hadn’t done much research. I found this very alien to me as I research loads for even a short trip so if I was spending a year in another country I’d find out as much as possible before leaving!

I had put together a presentation for the students about Edinburgh, our campus and places they could visit and I think they found it very helpful. After I used chocolate as bribery (as recommended by Liz!) to encourage them to ask questions! Even with bribery, it was really tough to get them to speak to me. I think they were worried about asking silly questions and maybe not confident about asking in English but eventually the braver students piped up.

On to Beijing

After our meeting with TUST we got a taxi to Tianjin Binhai Station and took a high speed train to Beijing South Station. When we waited for our train, I went into the small convenience store (as I was definitely not relying on train food again!). Although there were some lovely looking chicken feet on sale, I decided on some instant noodles.

We left Tianjin at 13:32 and the train took just over an hour. Liz had booked us first class seats so I had a taste of luxury for the journey as we headed towards my fourth Chinese city to explore!

 

 

Check out my other Chinese blog posts on arriving in China, Shanghai, Beijing, Xi’an, Pingyao and what to expect in China.