Tianjin, my dear, is a confused city. It's a copycat of everything you see in the modern world. Beijing's neighbor is a far cry from being a Chinese city. It's becoming a fast metropolis judging from the noise of the construction everywhere which makes huge part of the city unbelievably dusty. Twelve million people are living in a city with a lost culture and submerged in an oasis of modern civilization.
We arrived Tianjin via fast train at 10:35 in the morning. The 30-minute ride was impressive and smooth. It started and arrived on the dot. Beijing South Railway Station is so much better and cleaner and peaceful compared to Beijing Railway Station and Beijing West Railway Stations which are chaotic and smelly.
Despite the short ride, Brad, Suzy and Akua still managed to take a nap. I wondered what they were doing the night before. I say no more. Hahahahaha...
When we arrived at Tianjin Railway Station, we had no idea which exit to take but we decided to lose ourselves, one foot in front of the other.Then, we found a fountain where we ran into the middle and got ourselves wet. Hundreds of people must have been wondering what the hell we were doing.
With little help from our Lonely Planet map, we managed to figure out where we were. The Century Clock in front of the Railway Station looks weird but it was a sight worth to be oogled at. We traversed along the street where a lot of European-inspired buildings stand proud and grand! Boy, that was long street to be conquered and the noise level was a bit deafening. The area seems to be crowded and built into a district where it looks like little Europe. Except for the ocassional old bicycles prancing around and few Chinese citizens chatting and playing cards, there was no trace of Chinese life. Most buildings on this street were converted into bank offices and plastered with government protection billboards.
We continued walking like lost children in a foreign land. We asked some people around in Chinese (I didn't. My friends did), but 95% of the ones we asked were soooooo clueless and must have thought we invented the places we wanna go. :))
Though their "innocence" bothered us, but our sense of adventure prevailed. We further catwalked (in my case, obviously) aisles, alleys, bricks, avenues and crossings until our feet surrendered and our stomachs grumbled.
We had lunch at the Food Mall of South Market on Qinghe Dajie, a place recommended by a student of mine, to salivate ourselves with Tianjin food. Alas, we were quiet disappointed because the ones we ordered were actually the ones usually got anywhere in China. But the local snack staples like sugar-coated peanuts / nuts, etc... were uniquely Tianjin. That's what we where told.
Two Tianjingers (an American and Korean) joined us at our lunch table. And I can't take my eyes off away from the Korean. Ah, he's delicious. I don't like kimchi---but I might try one if... Hahahahaha...
After lunch, we hired a tricycle to bring us around the city for 80 kuai in two hours. We hired three for 9 of us. Though the weather was kinda shitty but we managed to see some sights that the city raves about. It was a fun ride coupled with a lot of camwhoring here and there.
Tianjin must be a city of bridges. I have no idea how many bridges we passed and stopped by. Each bridge has its own unique architectural style and there's this one decorated with a lot of sculptures of ancient Rome, I think. The water was black and we saw tiny school of fish dead. They must have died of polluted water. And we saw three men swimming while a cargo and tourist ships passed by. What a picture!
After the "tour," we bought our tickets at the train station to make sure we have seats back to Beijing. When we got what we want, we took a taxi to Tianjin's answer to Sanlitun, the bar district. The three taxi drivers we had were assholes. They refused to put the meter down but instead quoted as a ridiculous price. After 500 meters, we told them to stop and bickerings and negotiations flew into the air. To put an end to the "converstaion," I decided to take pictures of their plate numbes and the taxi drivers were alarmed. Realizing what we were doing, they offered us back calmly to their taxi but we just ignored them and took another cab. What a street scene we created.
We settled at Broadie's Tavern, an Irish-themed bar with nice selection of western food and cocktails. Boy, I had the cheapest frozen margarita in the history of my fucked-up life---for 5 yuan.
At 8:30, we moved to SCARLETT, a posh bar where the Korean guy worked as the manager. Man, EVRYTHING we drank were FREE: tequila, 4 pitchers of whiskey coke and cans of beer. It was so strange that at 9:00 p.m., the huge bar was almost crowded.
And yes, we danced. At least, it's true to Aizhan, Suzy and Me. As usual, the hot moves made us the star dancers of the night. There was so much libidinal tension when alcohol sustains your body. People must have thought I was the luckiest guy that night sandwiched with these two ladies who are proud of their natural, booblicious, humpy assets. Although it scared me a bit but the adulation and the looks of the Chinese crowd around was tempting that we cavorted as if we were the last dancers standing on earth. Talk about attention-seekers, rather than pleasure-seekers. Hahahahaha....
At 10:10 p.m., we bade goodbye to our two comrades and headed back to the railway station. To our surprise, the train was almost empty, so we didn't take the seats assigned in our tcikets. We were too tired and dizzy to walk further (#1 compartment), that we settled in the sixth compartment.
Then, there was silence. We were drop-dead dead.
Twenty-five minutes later, we smelled Beijing once more.
A day in Tianjin is a always a good day when spend with the nicest people around. The city might be boring to experience but if you are into anything and everything for the love of experience, you will, for sure, embrace Tianjin---like the way I do. Tianjin may not charm you right away but if you open your eyes and savour whatever you see, you'd say that the city isn't that bad at all.
Viva, Tianjin!
