Located on the sea and a river that connects to the Grand Canal, Tianjin has played a major role in China for hundreds of years. Today, this quiet metropolitan city isn’t on the list for many foreign visitors though it used to be the place for foreigners in China including U.S. President Hoover for a time. From the 1800s through the mid-1900s, this city was home to several foreign diplomatic missions and the communities that followed them. This history influenced how Tianjin grew and the architecture, which is probably the biggest draw for the city today.
Unlike Shanghai where they seem to discount this kind of foreign-influenced past, Tianjin is proud of this history and preserves and restores the historic architecture. Each historic building even has a plaque with information in Chinese and English. This is great because much of the architecture comes in blended styles with Chinese influences. There’s neo-classical, art deco, and mixes of everything in between. All through the heart of the city are neighborhoods with architecture influenced by its main foreign residents of the time. There is even a lovely old Chinese section of town with lots of history.
My only complaint is that a lot of the newer buildings and infrastructure is done in a style trying to mimic the old but done in a flashy and cheap way. It makes the old stuff look better, but also cheapens the historic stuff. I wish they would be creative and original and come up with new architecture that is complimentary even if it is modern architecture and not copy the old stuff in a cheap, only-for-show sort of way.
There are several historic districts throughout the city. On my short weekend jaunt, I explored parts of a few of them, but mostly the riverfront. Unfortunately, I was there on a Monday, so all of the museums were closed. I hear that they are wonderful museums though. On my next trip to Tianjin, I’ll have to go when I can visit them. I also visited a few of the historic churches, but I’ll share more about those in another post. You can check out my Adventure Patches Map to find locations of these buildings.
