Tianjin travel guide — Tianjin tourism and travel information

Tianjin travel guide

about Tianjin

Tianjin (天津; pinyin: tiān jīn, Postal System Pinyin: Tientsin) is a harbour municipality in China on the Hai He River (from Beijing) and Bohai Gulf of the Yellow Sea (Pacific Ocean). The placename literally means "the Heavenly Ford".

Tianjin is one of four independent municipalities in the People's Republic of China with provincial-level status. Tianjin is also the third largest city of China (rural population not counted).

Tianjin geography

Tianjin is at the northern end of the Grand Canal of China, which connects with the Huang He and Chang Jiang rivers. Tianjin borders Hebei province to the north, south, and west; the municipality of Beijing in a small portion to the northwest; and the Bohai Gulf of the Yellow Sea to the east.

Tianjin is generally flat, and swampy near the coast, but hilly in the far north, where the Yanshan Mountains pass through the tip of northern Tianjin. The highest point in Tianjin is Jiushanding Peak on the northern border with Hebei, at an altitude of 1078 m.

The Hai He River forms within Tianjin at the confluence of the Ziya River, Daqing River, Yongding River, North Grand Canal, and South Grand Canal; and enters the Pacific Ocean at Tianjin as well, in Dagu District. Major reservoirs include the Beidagang Reservoir in the extreme south (in Dagang District) and the Yuqiao Reservoir in the extreme north (in Jixian County).

Tianjin's climate is characterized by hot, humid summers, due to the monsoon, and dry, cold winters, due to the Siberian anticyclone. Spring is windy but dry, and most of the precipation takes place in July and August.

Tianjin history

The land where Tianjin lies today was originally part of Bohai Bay, and was created by sedimentation of the Yellow River when it entered the sea at that point.

The opening of the Grand Canal of China during the Sui Dynasty prompted the development of Tianjin into a trading center. Until 1404 Tianjin was called "Zhigu" (直沽), or "Straight Port". In that year, the Emperor Yongle renamed the city "Tianjin", literally "Heaven Ford", to mean that the emperor (son of heaven) forded the river at that point, as he indeed did earlier on his way to taking the throne forcibly from his nephew. A fort was established at Tianjin, known as "Tianjin Wei" (天津卫), meaning "Fort Tianjin".

Tianjin was promoted to a prefecture in 1725. Tianjin County was established under the prefecture in 1731.

In 1856 Chinese soldiers boarded The Arrow, a Chinese-owned ship registered in Hong Kong flying the British flag and suspected of piracy, smuggling and of being engaged in the opium trade. They captured 12 men and imprisoned them. In response the British and French sent gunboats under the command of Admiral Sir Michael Seymour to capture the Taku forts near Tianjin in May 1858. In June 1858, at the end of the first part of the Second Opium War, the Treaties of Tianjin were signed, which opened Tianjin to foreign trade. The treaties were ratified by the Emperor of China in 1860, and Tianjin was formally opened.

In June 1870, Wanghailou Church in Tianjin, built by French missionaries one year earlier, was implicated in the kidnapping, death by neglect, and improper burial of Chinese children. On June 21, the magistrate of Tianjin County initiated a showdown at the church that developed into violent clashes between the church's Christian supporters and non-Christian Tianjin residents. Mobs eventually burned down Wanghailou Church and the nearby French consulate, in what has since been known as the Tianjin Church Incident (天津教案). After the incident, France and six other Western nations complained to the Qing government, which was forced to pay compensation for the incident.

Between 1895 and 1900 Britain and France were joined by Japan, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy and Belgium in establishing self-contained concessions each with their own prisons, schools, barracks and hospitals.

In June 1900, the Boxers were able to seize control of much of Tianjin. On June 26 European forces heading towards Beijing were stopped by Boxers at nearby Langfang, and were forced to turn back to Tianjin. The foreign concessions also came under siege for several weeks.Herbert Hoover, the future President of the United States, was working in Tianjin at the time as chief engineer in the Chinese government's imperial bureau of mines, and together with fellow engineers built a protective wall against the attackers and risked his own life rescuing Chinese children.

Tianjin was established as a municipality of China in 1927.

On July 30, 1937, Tianjin fell to Japan, as part of the second Sino-Japanese War. During the occupation Tianjin was ruled by the North China Executive Committee, a puppet state based in Beijing. Japanese occupation lasted until August 15, 1945, the surrender of Japan marking the end of World War II.

After 1945, Tianjin became base to American forces. In December 1946, the rape of a Beiping (now Beijing) female university student by an American soldier, together with a series of rapes that had occurred in Tianjin before, sparked protests in Tianjin that culminated in a demonstration on January 1, 1947 involving thousands of students. American troops pulled out of Tianjin in June 1947.

Communist forces took Tianjin on January 15, 1949, following a 29-hour long battle. After communist takeover, Tianjin remained a municipality of China, except between 1958 and 1967, when it was reduced to be a part of and the capital of Hebei province. The Tangshan earthquake of 1976 killed 23938 people in Tianjin and did heavy damage.

After China began to open up in the late 1970s, Tianjin has

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