While in China, I took two day trips to Tianjin (天津). 天津 borders Hebei Province and Beijing. 天津 is the fourth largest city in China. It was built in 1404. There are many Western style buildings located in the city making it feel very French to me.
My first visit to 天津, I visited the Porcelain house, a food street, and another street that was similar to a hutong. The Porcelain house (瓷房子) is a museum of pottery and antiques. It has recently been redecorated using broken porcelain. I found the Porcelain house to be very interesting. It makes sense that a Porcelain house would be such a huge tourist attraction in China since porcelain is so famous and important in China. I think that the Porcelain house simultaneously looked cool and ugly.
The two food streets were great. I wish that the U.S. had more food streets. The first one was like a mall that had food stalls all over it. I made sure to buy a mahua (麻花). A mahua is a fried dough twist and is similar to a youtiao (油条). The mahua is really popular in Panama and was brought over there by Chinese immigrants. Other popular food in 天津 are Goubuli baozi, erduoyan zhagao, and maobuwen jiaozi. The other food that I had while in 天津 was a jianbing (煎饼) which is like a Chinese crepe. It is typically a breakfast food but I think you can eat it at all times.
The second time that I went to 天津 I saw the Tianjin Eye. The Tianjin Eye is a huge Ferris wheel that is similar to the London Eye. The Tianjin Eye is built over the Yongle Bridge. It began its construction in 2007. Although I didn't get to go in the Tianjin Eye, it was still beautiful to see it at night.
The other amazing thing that I got to do was spend some time a Chinese family. One of my friend's had a host family that he was visiting and I got to meet them too. They were really lovely, but all of the Chinese people that I encountered were really lovely. They took us out to dinner and we had a nice seafood meal. They also taught us some of the 天津 dialect. Afterwards, we went back to their house and played some basketball with their sons. It was really nice to spend some time with a family.
All in all, I think 天津 is a pretty cool city to visit. It is really easy to bike around the whole city and see both the Western parts as well as Chinese parts. The food was delicious, and I think that's the biggest selling point for 天津。 Just go there and eat all of the food.
Until next time!
再见!
马乐
No comments:
Post a Comment