Matt's Shanghai

Tianjin

We left last Friday night for Tianjin, an 11 hour train ride north from Shanghai. There were four of us, from four different nationalities... There was Caz a lawyer from Australia, studying language at Fudan for a career change. Then there was Shannon from Canada, a junior from Queens University in Ontario studying sociology at Fudan for a semester. Then came Kyla who is from everywhere, a British and a Canadian citizen, lived in Hong Kong during her childhood, going to high school and college at Queens. Then there's me, the American.

After working all day, then getting on the train around 8:00 on Friday night meant a really tired Matt on Saturday morning when we arrived a little after 6:00am. Kyla arranged a driver to meet us at the railway station and a hotel room in town. Everything worked out perfectly.

We went to Da Qou, a small town that was famous in the 70's and 80's for its tremendous wealth which is no longer evident. There was nothing really to see their, just some factories and a pretty runned down little town.

Spent the rest of the day in Tianjin, driving around seeing the sites. In all actuality, there are no "sites" in Tianjin, just shopping, so we spent most of the later part of the afternoon shopping.

The biggest difference between Tianjin (which is larger than Beijing) and Shanghai was the noise and the people. Everyone in Tianjin was polite, even though no one spoke English, and incredibly friendly. People in Tianjin didn't seem to use their horns quite as much as people in Shanghai. We joke in Shanghai, that car manufacturers should reverse the horns so they would be on constantly, except when you push the button on the steering wheel.

It would be an incredibly nice town to live in except there was absolutely nothing to do. No westerners, few restaurants, no sites, no bars, no anything. It was just a calm, beautiful environment in China... Which is becoming rare!

We had a late dinner together on Saturday night, just roamed the quiet streets around down town and then headed in early to watch "The White Ninja" on HBO. HBO Asia shows back to back early 90's movies, so there's no wonder why everyone in China dresses in stonewashed denim, along with an assortment of other lost fashions.

Sunday was about the same relaxed pace. We spent most of the day walking around on a pedestrian shopping street. It was incredibly long and was pretty crowded... lots of little side alleys to go down to see how people in Tianjin really lived. Lot's of poverty in the areas surrounding this really modern shopping area.

Almost missed the train back to Shanghai on Sunday night, getting to our bunks with about 5 minutes to spare. Turns out there were two or three train stations in Tianjin and we didn't know which one to go back to.. we made a lucky choice and got it right.

Great weekend away from Shanghai... hopefully more trips to follow!

posted by Matt Dull @ 6:48 PM