Tianjin: A City of Diverse Cultures
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According to some historians, tianjin is half a history of modern China. As a gateway to Beijing and a key port to the Chinese capital, Tianjin used to play a significant part in China’s politics. The Opium War in the late 1830s put Tianjin on the map of China. The allied force of the eight nations came to the city in 1900. The rebellious boxers set fire to foreign churches here. Yuan Shikai, a military strongman of the late Qing Dynasty and later president of the Republic of China and the Emperor of China for 83 days, once trained his soldiers here. Many warlords who later practically ruled China in the first 15 years of the young Republic once had their barracks in Tianjin. With various foreign consulates and foreign concessions in the city, Tianjin was once a very flourishing metropolis in northern China. But it became relatively quiet and deteriorated for years after the wars were over toward the end of the 1940s.
I visited Tianjin in October 2009. A friend suggested I visit Tianjin, saying it was only a 20-minute ride by high-speed railway. I was surprised by the closer ties between Beijing and Tianjin. More surprising is the total change the gateway city to China’s capital has undergone over the past three decades. One-storied houses in poor condition in suburban Tianjin are totally gone, replaced by ultramodern high-rises and a full-fledged transport system of overpasses and tunnels and railways.
The past is gone, but many architectural wonders of the past remain. The old town of Tianjin was structured on a kind of geomancy that once dominated the northern part of China: a central axis stretches through north and south; the west and the east are in symmetry; architectures are in blocks arranged in strict order of primary and secondary importance.
Chinese Architectures
Some Chinese-styled architectural antiques remain in Tianjin, allowing visitors to take a peep into the city’s glamour in old days. The three major ancient landmarks of Tianjin are the Drum Tower, the Canon Fortress and the Bell Pavilion, all built in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). They still stand in the downtown, a reminder of the majesty of a great empire.
The Dule Temple is older. It was erected in the early Tang Dynasty (618-907). An Lushan, a regional military chief, and his troopers took a pledge at the Dule Temple before starting a massive rebellion that almost toppled the Tang.
Shuixi Villa was built in 1723. Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) visited the garden resort four times on his southbound inspections.
Li Chun Memorial Temple in Nankai District of Tianjin was built in 1923. The original architecture used to stand in Beijing and owned by a high-ranking eunuch official of the Ming Dynasty. In 1913, that is, two years after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, a provincial military strongman purchased the residence for 200,000 silver dollars. The residence was dismantled piece by piece and shipped to Tianjin and put together again. The whole layout resembled that of the Forbidden City, hence the nickname of Little Palace in Tianjin.
In Green Willow Town, a place famous for its New Year printings, there remains an ancient residence, an affair of delicate sculpture on brick, wood and stone. This is recognized as a house typical of Chinese architecture in Tianjin.
Western Architectures
The old era has left to Tianjin a plethora of western architectures. Fifth Avenue alone is home to 230 residences in Renaissance style, in Greek style, in Gothic style built by architects from UK, France, Germany and Spain. Fifty of them were once inhabited by well known historical personages.
I took a boat tour on the Haihe River that traverses the downtown Tianjin. It was a great pleasure to travel on the clear river. I gawked at modernized skylines on both sides of the river against a breathtaking azure. For a moment I thought as if I was touring on the Seine through Paris.
After the boat tour, I landed at a street block which used to be part of the British concession in Tianjin. This urban area serves as a historical and cultural street block. One part is the French street and another Italian street. Tourists can roam around, lounge at an European café or restaurant, feast on views of street sculptures and old-styled houses.
Unlike some cities where old buildings went down and new high-rises mushroom in places vacated by old buildings, Tianjin has built a total new urban center on a land much nearer to the sea. It is Tianjin Economic and Technological Development Zone. Over the past 10 plus years, the 21-square-kilometer new urban center is home to hundreds of international corporations such as Motorola, Samsung, Boeing, and SEW. It used to be a no man’s land ravaged by salt. Today, the new town of Tianjin outputs goods and services worth 200 billion yuan a year.