Entrance Gate With Dragons And Upturned Eaves To Food Market In Tianjin.

The first time we visited Tianjin we travelled by car along a toll-road from Beijing. This first journey on the Tianjin toll-road was going well until one of the car tyres was punctured, so the driver found it necessary to change a wheel at the roadside, in the sight of policemen standing at the side of the road. There were quite a number of policemen at the side of the Tianjin Road, to remind drivers of the speed limits, and the need for care, however, all these policemen were life-size picture models on boards! Whether the people driving from Beijing to Tianjin took any notice of them is unknown, but from a distance the replicas were very life-like.

The seaports at Tianjin are the nearest to Beijing, so on the outskirts of Tianjin can be seen many factories and warehouses. In the city itself there are reminders of the concessions given to foreign countries in earlier year, in the western architecture of some of the Tianjin houses. Parts of Tianjin are without doubt Chinese, and the Ancient Culture Street alongside the Hai River, has buildings in keeping with the Ming and Qing Dynasties.