There's probably lots to do in Tianjin, but I needed to get to Beijing.

While looking for the train station in Tanggu, we (Brian, the other guy and me) accidentally got on the bus to Tiajin. On the bus we met the lady who would help us (the other guy and me) to get to Beijing. It was a very good thing that we found this lady because it would have taken us ages to navigate through the street of Taijin to get from where the bus left us to the train station. Not to mention the fact that we actually thought we were on a bus to the Tanggu train station.

She fought (a good fight too) through the crowd to get us tickets for the next train. We followed her to the train and got on board. She had made sure that we all had seat next to each other. This was her chance to practice her English with two English teachers!

I had to use the bathroom so she showed me where it was. (This train had the nicest bathroom in the whole of China!) When we got back to our seats some other people were sitting in them. At first she asked them politely to give us back our seats, but they argued with her. Then she pulled out her and my tickets to prove that these were our seats and started yelling at them. They got up and took someone else's seat.   

Had been on a short Work trip to Tianjin in china the 3rd biggest city aparently, not to much on the front of touristy thingy but this aparently changed not to long ago since it is part of the olympic city's.

The best thing of course  in tianjin with out any dought is the food!! how amazing - people life 4 food you can see them sitting all night even in the cold out site and having food on the road side.

Some of it or some people still miss whestern food which is hard to understand especially with the abundance of such a great selection.

there are some great clubs not only at the "bar street" which seamt to be in any city  but too in some selected areas. Night clubs are with great life music most of them at least depending on your tast of course, but it is easy to find some nice hang out easy.

English is spoken a bit amongst the younger peopel Uni students but other then that your left alone and have to fight for it.

cultur street and around the bell tower is nice a bit touristy, sadly lot of the "houtong" had been destroyed to make way for new buildings then again it was close in the city center and sem to be an eye soar..

there is too the old "european style " part of the city.. and the great wall is not to far too, sadly in my 3 visit I saw the loss of some of the nice market close to the "golden Street" which had been replaced due to the olympics comming -- lots of things had changed since lots of new good looking renovation taking place

amongst the river are some nice places to just walk around..there are some good shopping bargains just behind the cultur street to be found a huge area with whole sale markets, then too one can take the train down to tangugg the habour town more shopping and great food

pollution was a bit an issue when I was there - not often I could see blue sky but still a nice city with a town feeling to it.

peopel dance and play cards- table gaimes in the parks just great to see such closeness.

I'll be back ther some time

People i met here, who contributed to and improved my trip: Julia (Russia)

I had a restless night aboard the train, waking up at constant intervals. I was petrified someone would try and steal my day bag and had nowhere to put it other than next to my head, which really didn't leave me much room to get comfortable. It was also a problem to get a good temperature, as their thick blankets were making me sweat, but without them it was too cold. So even though it was before 06.00 when i was woken up by the train steward, i was pleased to be getting out into the new day.

Eventually we managed to figure out which bus would take us somewhere near the centre and 30 minutes later we were been dropped off, still a little clueless as to where we actually were. Julia spotted the roof of onion domed Xikai Church and we used this as a reference point to work our way towards the Treaty Port Architecture, on Jiefeng Beilu. Once at the impressive Jiefeng Bridge, our wonderful Lousy Planet Map showed that all we had to do was follow this road down and we would come to all of the old colonial structures.

It therefore came as quite a shock to see huge gaps and piles of rubble where the buildings that we had come to see were supposed to be... well, at least according to the map. It soon became evident that there was nothing to see, so we decided to wander off down an adjacent road and thank goodness we did! The Lousy had been up to its old tricks again and produced a thoroughly inept map, as it had labeled Jiefeng Bielu as the road coming off the bridge,when it was actually a road running parallel to this.

The street was undergoing major refurbishment work with rubble and dust taking up the majority of the street. Most of the building facades were thankfully visible and it was enjoyable to see what the Europeans had left behind, most of it been rather impressive. A lot of the buildings had been built to house banks from all around the World, and today they seem to host the majority of powerhouse banks within China.

Reaching the end of the street, we found a nice little park and went in to watch Chinese people at their finest. Men and women of all ages (but mostly old) were playing table tennis, different versions of hackysack, mahjong and doing some general exercises on fitness machines that were installed in the park. Julia joined in by performing some aerobics (see photo!). To me, this was a much more enjoyable experience than the previous day in Chengde and had set us back 180RMB ($26) less.

Continuing on a circuit around the city, which is home to nearly 10 million Chinese people, we were confronted with major construction sites at every turn we made. Apparently the council planners had decided to give the place a major face lift, but the only problem is that they were trying to do everything at once, rather than a little at a time. This meant that all of the work that had been started, but pretty much nothing completed, which is a feeling that i get when walking around Beijing as well. There was a grey tinge to the air and when you rubbed your finger round the edge of your nose, it became black!

Around 10.30 we had to stop for a drink and to cool down, as it was turning into a sweltering day. Refreshed and ready to go again and next destination was Xikai Church, which we had seen earlier. The French built Church had suffered a turbulent History, with damage caused both from the Cultural Revolution and an earthquake. It made for a pleasant stop, before heading back into the town centre, where we wandered the streets of the antique market.

Our last destination for the day was the Hai River, which we had a brief walk along and took the chance to have another look at the Jiefeng Bridge. Although we still had 90 minutes before our train was due to leave, we decided that it was sensible to start making our way towards the station, as we really couldn't afford to miss the bullet train back to Beijing, bringing to an end a pleasant day out in Tianjin. I think this is one place i'd like to come back to in 5 years, when hopefully all the building work has been finished, i think it should look pretty spectacular!

Acordar às sete e picos da manhã para quem está habituado a preguiçar na cama a manhã toda (e vá, talvez um pouco da tarde também... Férias são férias! :p) é realmente uma chatice de todo o tamanho. Mas como é para nos pormos a caminho do Japão, bem - lá se faz o sacrifício!

O porto de Tianjin ainda fica a uma hora e pouco de carro da nossa universidade, e não foi sem algum stress (estavamos a ver que ainda perdíamos o barco!) que eu e a Rute fizemos o caminho até ao terminal de embarque. Fiquei bastante aliviada quando entrei no barco e vi o sítio onde iriamos passar os próximos dois dias. Depois da terrível viagem de comboio de 19 horas em 'hard seats' a Xi'An, estava à espera de qualquer coisa...

Perfect Hotel, Very good german cook. Hotel rooms very clean.

Acordar às sete e picos da manhã para quem está habituado a preguiçar na cama a manhã toda (e vá, talvez um pouco da tarde também... Férias são férias! :p) é realmente uma chatice de todo o tamanho. Mas como é para nos pormos a caminho do Japão, bem - uma pessoa faz o sacrifício!

O porto de Tianjin ainda fica a uma hora e pouco de carro da nossa universidade, e não foi sem algum stress (estavamos a ver que ainda perdíamos o barco!) que eu e a Rute fizemos o caminho até ao terminal de embarque. Fiquei bastante aliviada quando entrei no barco e vi o sítio onde iriamos passar os próximos dois dias. Depois da terrível viagem de comboio de 19 horas em 'hard seats' a Xi'An,

Dia 21 eu e a Tito metemo-nos no barco de Tianjin para Kobe. Chamava-se Yanjing. Marcámos para a camarata mais barata (21 pessoas), mas tivemos sorte, uma vez que só estavam lá mais três mulheres. A viagem demorou 2 dias, mas tudo para ir para o Japão. O barco tinha O-furo (casa de banho japonesa – lavamo-nos e depois vamos para uma banheira de água quente relaxar) e sauna.

Este foi o dia em que finalmente me encaminhei para o país que durante muito tempo teve protagonismo nos meus sonhos - o Japão. Eu e a Rute apanhamos um barco que partiu da nossa cidade, Tianjin, e levou mais de dois dias a chegar ao porto de Kobe. O relato desta viagem faço-o num blog à parte, dedicado inteiramente a esta viagem ao Japão :)

Can't comment more on this city.

Driver picked me up at my hotel at 6AM.  Then drove to pick up my friend at her home to go to the airport.  We flew from Tianjin to Shanghai.  At the Shanghai Pudong Airport, we saw the most stunning sunrise ever.  For me it’s not everyday I get to see a sunrise or sunset and I doubt most people see much of it at all in their entire lifetime.   When you do, you just try to remember the moment and appreciate the beauty of mother nature.  From Shanghai we flew to Hong Kong. I was supposed to spend four days in Hong Kong but due to unforeseen circumstances I had to cancel my HK trip and fly straight home from HK to Melbourne.  It was bittersweet to go home because I really wanted to keep on traveling especially to HK, but I guess I’ll just have to go there another time.

In summary, China was a fantastic trip for me largely due to fact that I traveled like a VIP with my friend.  I stayed in decent hotels, ate great food, had drivers to take us anywhere we wanted to go.  If I were to go there on my own, I would have difficulty accomplishing half the things I did on this trip.  And as a cherry on top, this was an all-expenses paid trip.  I’m very grateful to have this opportunity offered to me and I doubt it will happen again.  Just wanted to give a special shout out to my friend and her family for being awesome hosts and showing me what China has to offer.  Peace!

Had free breakfast at my hotel again.  My friend came to get me and we walked to her father’s building.  Today was the first day of sales to the public.  There were people waiting outside to get in so they can choose what apt they want to buy.  It was a riot, people yelling and screaming, a lot of commotion, and the lobby was filled with cigarette smoke.  Most Chinese people love to smoke.  We then went to lunch at the same fancy restaurant.  Drank so much wine that I had a good buzz.  When the Chinese people drink, they say “Ganbei” which is like “Cheers”.  It literally translates to “dry cup”.   The thing is they go to every table and “ganbei” everyone and you have to drink every time.  Even in your own table everybody stands up and “ganbei” each other several times.  I had to down a full glass of wine several times.  Basically there were a lot of drinking and some people drank so much they had to vomit.  Good times!

After lunch my friend and I walked around Tianjin and did a little bit of shopping while I struggled to walk straight.  I tried to soak in as much as I can knowing that today was the last day I will spend in China before flying home tomorrow morning.

Flew back to Tianjin this afternoon from Shanghai.  Chilled for a little bit.  I had a nosebleed due to the cold dry polluted air.  Went out to dinner with lots of people I don’t know.  Ate a lot and drank a lot.

My friend and her driver picked me up at the hotel in the morning for breakfast.  We went to a popular spot in Tianjin and had soy milk and Chinese donuts for about RMB$5 Yuan (that’s dirt cheap).  Then we went for a stroll at a lake in the city, which name in Chinese translates into Sea Lake.  There were crazy people swimming in the freezing lake supposedly because they think will cleanse their body and improve their health.  We walked across the street to a curio with a lot of shops.  I saw a scarf I like and haggled down from RMB$25 to RMB$15 (about A$2).  It’s a nice cashmere scarf made in Mongolia.  It is normal to haggle for prices in China especially at the street markets because they intentionally mark up the prices knowing that you will bargain down at least 50% of it.

We went to another place for more shopping but didn’t buy anything.  Had lunch at Pizza Hut, which is quite different then the ones in the US or Australia.  It is like a restaurant where you can sit and eat at a table.  They serve all kinds of drinks including alcohol and their pizza varieties are completely different.  After lunch we went to my friend’s father’s building (he’s a builder), which consists of two towers of apartments, a shopping center below the apts, and a subway station below the shopping center.  It is due to complete by end of 2008, but they will officially release rooms for sale on the 15^th of December to the public.

Later in the evening, we went to a popular joint named Gou Bu Li (which translates into Dog Don’t Care) known for their soft and juicy pork buns.  There’s a whole story about the name but it’s too long to write about it and it has nothing to do with dogs.  A tray of 8 buns costs RMB$35 so that’s considered pretty expensive over there.  I find it just OK as I don’t really like pork buns, but the bun itself was soft and chewy.  After dinner I got dropped off at my hotel and went to sleep because tomorrow will be a long day.

Já experimentei comida coreana. A primeira vez foi num restaurante chamado Tudari. Comi espetadas. Eram deliciosas. Na segunda comi em casa. A Titó e a Xana foram buscar ao restaurante porque dizem que tem muito mau aspecto e não querem que percamos o apetite. Comemos arroz com couve (que eu pus de lado) com carne de vaca, ovo estrelado e batata doce frita com ovo. Também delicioso.

Nesta noite decidimos experimentar comida cantonesa. O restaurante estava cheio, mas não esperámos muito. Ficámos sentadas numa mesa-barco muito gira. Não apreciei muito a comida, mas podia ser pior… Algumas coisas até eram bastante boas. No final da refeição decidimos tornar-nos artísticas…

   Depois de comer, decidimos experimentar uma discoteca chinesa, mas acabámos por entrar num club. Não havia pista nem nada, mas dançámos na mesma. Os chineses gostam muito de jogar aos dados. Há sempre dois copos com dados em cada mesa. Deve ser para ver quem paga a próxima rodada, sei lá… Bem, elas puseram-se a brincar com os dados e só se viam dados a voar por todos os lados. Quando nos quisemos ir embora, revistaram-nos as malas, porque pensavam que levávamos dados connosco. Foi hilariante.