Tianjin 天津

Tianjin Construction Site. By Jakob Montrasio. Sourced via Flickr under Creative Commons Attribution License.

Tianjin (天津) city is a Municipality in the north of China, situated beside the Yellow Sea, just south of Beijing. Tianjin is a rapidly developing city that can be divided into the old city and the new Binhai development area. A large number of foreign companies have bases in Tianjin, taking advantage of the sea port location and proximity to the nation capital, Beijing. A high speed rail line connects Tianjin and Beijing with the journey taking just 30 minutes. 

Tourist Attractions

Below is a list of tourist attractions in Tianjin:

History

The land where Tianjin lies today was created in historical times by sedimentation of various rivers entering the sea at Bohai Gulf (渤海灣), including the Yellow River, which entered the sea in this area at one 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 Yongle Emperor renamed the city Tianjin, literally means "the Heavenly Ford", to indicate that the Emperor (son of heaven) forded the river at that point. This is because he had indeed forded the river in Tianjin while on a campaign to scramble for the throne from his nephew. Later on, a fort was established in Tianjin, known as "Tianjin Wei" (simplified Chinese: 天津卫; traditional Chinese: 天津衛; pinyin: Tiānjīnwèi), the Fort of 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 Dagu forts (大沽砲臺) near Tianjin in May 1858. At the end of the first part of the Second Opium War in June of the same year, 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 to the outside world. Between 1895 and 1900, Britain and France were joined by Japan, Germany and Russia, and even by countries without other Chinese concessions such as Austria-Hungary, Italy and Belgium, in establishing self-contained concessions in Tianjin, each with its own prisons, schools, barracks and hospitals.

The presence of foreign influence in Tianjin was not always peaceful; one of the most serious violent incidents to take place was the Tianjin Church Incident (天津教案). In June 1870, Wang hai lou Church (T: 望海樓教堂 / S: 望海楼教堂) in Tianjin, built by French Roman Catholic missionaries, was accused of the kidnapping and brainwash of Chinese children. The rumour was that nuns were preserving children's eyes (it seems that the confusion came from the jars of pickle with small onions in the kitchen). 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. The furious protestors eventually burned down Wanghailou Church and the nearby French consulate. France and six other Western nations complained to the Qing government, which was forced to pay compensation for the incident.

In June 1900, the Boxers were able to seize control of much of Tianjin. On June 26, belligerent European forces heading towards Beijing were stopped by Boxers at nearby Langfang, and were defeated and forced to turn back to Tianjin. The foreign concessions also came under siege for several weeks.

In July 1900, the Eight Nation United Army attacked and occupied Tianjin. They soon established the Tianjin Provisional Government, composed of representatives from each of the occupying forces (Russian, British, Japanese, German, French, American, Austro-Hungarian, and Italian). Tianjin was governed by this council until August 15, 1902 when the city was returned to Qing control. Eminent Qing General Yuan Shikai headed efforts to remake Tianjin into a modern city, establishing the first modern Chinese police force here.

Tianjin was established as a municipality of China(直轄市) in 1927.

Western nations were permitted to garrison the area to ensure open access to Peking. The British maintained a brigade of two battalions there, and the Italians, French, Japanese, Germans, Russians, and Austro-Hungarians maintained understrength regiments; the United States did not initially participate. During World War I, the German and Austro-Hungarian garrisons were captured and held as Prisoners of War by Allied Forces while the Bolshevik government withdrew the Russian garrison in 1918. In 1920, the remaining participating nations asked the United States to join them, and the US then sent the 15th Infantry Regiment, less one battalion, to Tientsin from the Philippines.

Garrison duty was highly regarded by the troops. General George C Marshall, the "architect of victory" in World War II when he was the United States Army Chief of Staff, served at Tientsin in the 1920s as Executive Officer of the 15th Infantry. The US withdrew this unit in 1938 and a US presence was maintained only by the dispatch of a small US Marine Corps contingent from the Embassy Guard at Peking.

On July 30, 1937, Tianjin fell to Japan, as part of the Second Sino-Japanese War, but was not entirely occupied, as the Japanese for the most part respected foreign concessions until 1941, when the American and British concessions were occupied. In the summer of 1939, there occurred a major crisis in Anglo-Japanese relations with the Tientsin Incident. On June 14, 1939, the Imperial Japanese Army surrounded and blockaded the British concession over the refusal of the British authorities to hand over to the Japanese six Chinese who had assassinated a locally prominent Japanese collaborator, and had taken refuge in the British concession. For a time, the 1939 crisis appeared likely to cause an Anglo-Japanese war, especially when reports of the maltreatment by the Japanese Army of British subjects wishing to leave or enter the concession appeared in the British press. The crisis ended when the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was advised by the Royal Navy and the Foreign Office that the only way to force the Japanese to lift the blockade was to send the main British battle fleet to Far Eastern waters, and that given the current crisis in Europe that it would be inappropriate to send the British fleet out of European waters, thus leading the British to finally turn over the six Chinese, who were then executed by the Japanese. During the Japanese occupation, Tianjin was ruled by the North China Executive Committee, a puppet state based in Beijing.

On August 9, 1940, all of the British troops in Tianjin were ordered to withdraw. On November 14, 1941 the American Marine unit stationed in Tianjin was ordered to leave, but before this could be accomplished, the Japanese attacked the United States. The small 47 man American Marine detachment surrendered to the Japanese on December 8, 1941. Only the Italian and French concessions (the local French officials were loyal to Vichy) were allowed to continue by the Japanese. 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.

Communist forces took Tianjin on January 15, 1949, following a 29-hour long battle. After the communist takeover, Tianjin remained a municipality of China, except between 1958 and 1967, when it became part of Hebei province and its capital. The Tangshan earthquake of 1976 killed 23,938 people in Tianjin and wrought heavy damage on the city.

After China began to open up in the late 1970s, Tianjin has seen rapid development, though it is now lagging behind other important cities like Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou. Tianjin is now home to the Binhai New Area, a Pudong-like special economic zone that is supposed to balance out Shanghai's obvious commercial superiority. 

People and Culture

At the end of 2007, the population of Tianjin Municipality was 11.15 million, of which 9.59 million were holders of Tianjin hukou (permanent residence). Among Tianjin permanent residents, 5.8 million were urban, and 3.79 million were rural. The population will grow to 14 million (out of which 11,5 million will be urban population.

Excludes members of the People's Liberation Army in active service.
Source: Department of Population, Social, Science and Technology Statistics of the National Bureau of Statistics of China (國家統計局人口和社會科技統計司) and Department of Economic Development of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission of China (國家民族事務委員會經濟發展司), eds. Tabulation on Nationalities of 2000 Population Census of China (《2000年人口普查中國民族人口資料》). 2 vols. Beijing: Nationalities Publishing House (民族出版社), 2003. (ISBN )

Industry

The nominal GDP for Tianjin was 635.4 billion yuan (US$90 billion) in 2008, a year-on-year increase of 16.5%. 

In 2008, per capita GDP was 55,473 yuan. The manufacturing sector was the largest (60.1%) and fastest-growing (18.2%) sector of Tianjin's economy. Urban disposable income per capita was 19,423 yuan, a real increase of 18.7% from the previous year. Rural pure income per capita was 9,670 yuan, a real increase of 10.5% from the previous year.

Farmland takes up about 40% of Tianjin Municipality's total area. Wheat, rice, and maize are the most important crops. Fishing is important along the coast. Tianjin is also an important industrial base. Major industries include petrochemical industries, textiles, car manufacturing, mechanical industries, and metalworking.

Tianjin Municipality also has deposits of about 1 billion tonnes of petroleum, with Dagang District containing important oilfields. Salt production is also important, with Changlu Yanqu being one of China's most important salt production areas. Geothermal energy is another resource of Tianjin. Deposits of manganese and boron under Tianjin were the first to be found in China.

EADS Airbus has already opened an assembly plant for its A320 series airliners, operational since 2009. AVIC I and AVIC II will be EADS' local partners for the site, to which subassemblies will be sent from plants around the world

Geography

Tianjin is at the northern end of the Grand Canal of China（大運河）, which connects with the Huang He （黃河）and Yangtze （長江）rivers.

Tianjin Municipality is generally flat, and swampy near the coast, but hilly in the far north, where the Yanshan Mountains （燕山）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（海河） forms within Tianjin Municipality at the confluence of the Ziya River（子牙河）, Daqing River（大清河）, Yongding River（永定河）, North Grand Canal, and South Grand Canal; and enters the Pacific Ocean at Tianjin Municipality 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 Ji County).

The urban area of Tianjin is found in the south-central part of the Municipality. In addition to the main urban area of Tianjin proper, the coast along the Bohai is lined with a series of port towns, including Tanggu （塘沽）and Hangu（漢沽）.

Tianjin's climate is a monsoon-influenced humid continental climate (Koppen climate classification Dwa) characterized by hot, humid summers, due to the monsoon, and dry, cold winters, due to the Siberian anticyclone. Average highs in January and July are 2 °C (36 °F) and 31 °C (87 °F) respectively). Spring is windy but dry, and most of the precipitation takes place in July and August. Tianjin also experiences occasional spring sandstorms which blow in from the Gobi Desert and may last for several days. 

Tianjin is divided into 18 county-level divisions, including 15 districts and 3 counties.

Tianjin Proper

#	District	Population (2006 census)	Area (km²)	Density (per km²)
1	Heping District (和平区: Hépíng Qū)	470,000	9.97
2	Hexi District (河西区: Héxī Qū)	740,000	37
3	Hebei District (河北区: Héběi Qū)	620,000	27
4	Nankai District (南开区: Nánkāi Qū)	790,000	40.64
5	Hedong (河东区: Hédōng Qū)	680,000	39
6	Hongqiao District (红桥区: Hōngqiáo Qū)	620,000	21.3

Binhai Suburbs

#	District	Population (2006 census)	Area (km²)	Density (per km²)
7	Tanggu District (塘沽区: Tánggū Qū)	480,000	688
8	Hangu District (汉沽区: Hàngū Qū)	170,000	859
9	Dagang District (大港区: Dàgǎng Qū)	350,000	1113

Tianjin Suburbs

#	District	Population (2006 census)	Area (km²)	Density (per km²)
10	Jinnan District (津南区: Jīnnán Qū)	380,000	401
11	Dongli District (东丽区: Dōnglì Qū)	320,000	460
12	Xiqing District (西青区: Xīqīng Qū)	330,000	545
13	Beichen District (北辰区: Běichén Qū)	320,000	478

Tianjin Rural

#	District	Population (2006 census)	Area (km²)	Density (per km²)
14	Baodi District (宝坻区: Bǎodǐ Qū)	650,000	1,523
15	Wuqing District (武清区: Wǔqīng Qū)	840,000	1,570
16	Ji County (蓟县: Jì Xiàn)	810,000	1,590
17	Jinghai County (静海县: Jìnghǎi Xiàn)	520,000	1,476
18	Ninghe County (宁河县: Nínghé Xiàn)	360,000	1,414