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| Tianjin Railway Station |
TIANJIN
We took the escalator going up, out into a huge circular open space. There's a huge globe relief at the center floor. Officially welcoming us to Tianjin.
A river called the Haihe River separates this station from what seemed like an awesome mall right across. It is the Jinwa Plaza. It looked so grand from a far, it begs us go there to check it out.
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| Globe Relief |
A river called the Haihe River separates this station from what seemed like an awesome mall right across. It is the Jinwa Plaza. It looked so grand from a far, it begs us go there to check it out.
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| Haihe River |
We went around and crossed a small bridge to get up-close and personal.
As we walked towards the bridge and into the bridge, I looked around at the surrounding areas. There were more structures that caught my attention. A giant clock sculpture, called the Century Clock. A tall sexy building, called the Jinta Tower. And a cable bridge further down along the river, called the Ligonglou Bridge.
CENTURY CLOCK
This giant clock sculpture was placed in a rotunda or roundabout as a symbol of the beginning of the Chinese modern industry in Tianjin.
JINTA TOWER
The Jinta Tower is also called the Tianjin World Financial Center. I personally called it the sexy building because of its shape. An award-winning building for its structural engineering design.
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| Century Clock & Jinta Tower |
From a distance, this dramatic cable bridge looks very futuristic in design. It spans over the Haihe River.
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| Ligonglou Bridge |
JINWA PLAZA
I imagined it like we were in Europe. The Jinwa Plaza is gorgeously landscaped in a very elaborate floral arrangements. Although the flowers they used were artificial, it was beautiful nonetheless.
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| Jinwa Plaza |
The buildings were European in style (like I am some architect who knows buildings 😊).
It is one of the many, i mean, obscenely many empty malls in China waiting to be occupied. I have watched a special report on 60 Minutes about China's Real State Bubble. It was all about these malls and residential towers, being built in China, in the hundreds, and have yet to be occupied. If you notice on these photos, we had the place all to ourselves. It's probably why it was landscaped with "temporary" silk flowers. Purely aesthetic in purpose.
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| Jinwa Plaza |
Cerulean Blue Cabs
After exploring Jinwa, we went back to the train station to hail a cab. To explore more of the city.
I noticed that taxis were all cerulean blue. There were throngs of taxis milling around the train station exits, so it was easy to get one.
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| Blue cabs |
HEPING DISTRICT
The taxi took us to Heping District, the financial center of Tianjin.
The city's streetscapes were very European. It was lined with charming houses of art deco. Tianjin accumulated many fine European flairs as the city was once shared by countries like Italy, Germany, France, Russia, Great Britain, Austria, and Belgium. All of which left permanent marks to the city. Most notable of which were the villas which now provides a striking appearance of the city.
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| Heping |
City Juxtapose
As we continued walking towards the inner neighborhood, I saw some high-rise buildings jutting into the skies behind some dilapidated courtyards of the old Chinese Hutongs. Rickshaws, old grey bikes, little eateries, all inter-mixed with the grand European landscapes of the outer hood.
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| Heping District |
Eating lunch at a small eatery was an adventure. We couldn’t read the Chinese menu; they couldn’t explain what's in it. But we managed to order a weird kind of soup.
Finding where we were was another challenge. But with some essential notes from our receptionist back at the hostel, we have some Chinese phrases translated in english with us handy. We were able to show it to the police and some random people. It helped us find our way back to the railway station going back to Beijing.
Please continue reading on to ➡️ PART 14.
Really awesome China!
Finding where we were was another challenge. But with some essential notes from our receptionist back at the hostel, we have some Chinese phrases translated in english with us handy. We were able to show it to the police and some random people. It helped us find our way back to the railway station going back to Beijing.
Please continue reading on to ➡️ PART 14.
Really awesome China!
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