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Travellers Journey - by Andrew Aigner-Muehler

Chapter 28 - Tianjin

March 8th 2010 12:48
Tianjin in China’s north is a city that you either hate or you like, the same goes for word of mouth for one of the most important seaside ports in China.
Tianjin itself is only a young city, growing by the day, you will notice that quite quickly when you visit the city. A lot of Tianjin’s architecture is quite new, and if it looks old, it has been made to look old.

Tianjin
The main river going through Tianjin



When you watch travel documentaries on CCTV9 English channel such as Travelogue, they can’t seem to talk enough about Tianjin. Every thing is so good there, and it is a city that you have to visit, on the other hand, you speak to any Chinese national, they tell you, not to waste your time about going there, the same thing goes with foreigners who have been to the city.

Tianjin
Tianjin shopping mall


I will not put Tianjin down. Tianjin was supposed to be a city that I was meant to reside in for a year. I also have only spent a day there, which was just recently over the Spring Festival break. To me personally from my one day spent there, I see it a bit of a hustling city especially around the shopping part. Tianjin should also promote itself as the shopping city of China, as you will see the entire major brand named shops there, and Tianjin has actually got a shopping street or two that you can not actually drive down, it is a real shopping mall, something that the rest of China misses especially Beijing. Yes, Shanghai has a non-car street which is sought of a mall, but it is not as long as the shopping street in Tianjin, and not as many shops. But, besides that, I also think Tianjin would be a city that you not visit in the winter; it is a city that you visit in the summer. I just hope when I return to the city one day, that the river and the pedestrian sidewalk actually comes alive up with cafes, bars, restaurants and stalls. Then furthermore on the river with peddle boats, tourist boats and cruises. I will be bitterly disappointed if it doesn’t, as that city looks like, it has so much potential around that river.


Tianjin
Central Tianjin



Tianjin's tallest building
Tianjin's tallest building


Another thing that you hear a lot about Tianjin is that so many foreigners actually reside there or work there. Well, the day I was there, the only foreigner I saw was my friends that I was actually with. It was like; the headline news was ‘no foreigners to be on the street in Tianjin tomorrow’. It definitely is not like Tianjin where there are foreigners everywhere.
In a final word, do not believe a person when they say not to visit a city.

Tianjin
Tianjin shopping mall


Tianjin
Tianjin shopping district

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It is Friday the 25th of December, Christmas day of all days. A day that you should be celebrating with your loved ones instead, I am spending two hours with my students who I had called my kids for the past four or so months.

Class 4B
Grade one, Class 4B at XiErQi primary school, Beijing

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Chapter 26...Being attacked in Beijing.

November 15th 2009 05:56
I was told when I first came to China, not to mess with a Chinese person, which is true, but how about when they attack you for no reason.

Like many of us expats do on the weekend, we head into Sanlitun for a night out, and have a few beers with our friends


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chapter 25... Life in Beijing

November 15th 2009 05:50
Making the move from Chengde to Beijing was supposed to bring me more time to travel; instead it has brought me no time to travel. But, living in one of the worlds most populated cities is a must.

Compared to the smaller towns outside Beijing, it is hard for a foreigner who has came to China to experience the Chinese culture, and to experience the real China


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It is now September 2009 the start of the new school year. I have made the move from Chengde to Beijing, this time teaching grade one students at a primary school level, not middle school students like I did last school year. My little darlings are 6 years of age.
But before I actually started at this job in XiErQi, the northern districts of Beijing, I again had trouble.
I was actually supposed to start a primary school job in Tianjin, of which I had signed a a year contract with, but that school did the dirty on me, and did not follow through with their contract. This is what makes you mad teaching in China, they make you sign a contract to say if you do not follow through with your teaching assignment you need to pay around 5000rmb for the inconvenience of them finding another teacher or they take a a portion of your first months wages as a deposit


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It is now September 2009 the start of the new school year. I have made the move from Chengde to Beijing, this time teaching grade one students at a primary school level, not middle school students like I did last school year. My little darlings are 6 years of age.
But before I actually started at this job in XiErQi, the northern districts of Beijing, I again had trouble.
I was actually supposed to start a primary school job in Tianjin, of which I had signed a a year contract with, but that school did the dirty on me, and did not follow through with their contract. This is what makes you mad teaching in China, they make you sign a contract to say if you do not follow through with your teaching assignment you need to pay around 5000rmb for the inconvenience of them finding another teacher or they take a a portion of your first months wages as a deposit


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It is the second week in July, and it is the end of my my first years teaching experience in China. I must say, i feel bad. Within literally 5 minutes of finishing my last five classes on the Friday i had left the school with my bags and was in a taxi to the railway station to get a bus into Beijing where I had planned to stay the night before catching a train to Shanghai the next day. I could not get a hard sleeper so i had to settle for a hard seat, I even booked six days in advance. The train is fairly much a express train only stopping twice. The train which was jam packed all the way from Beijing to Shanghai with passengers who could not purchase a seat standing in the aisles or where ever there was space. Don't ask me why anyone would want to stand for thirteen hours on the train and to make it worse it was a overnight train, but they did. I had reached Shanghai at lunchtime on the Sunday after leaving saturday night. Thankfully I was met by a friend and helped with my luggage to the hostel where I had booked at. The Captain hostel in Fuzhou Street. Even so the hostel had bad reports on hostelworld.com about the service, I could not find anything wrong, it is just a typical Chinese run hostel, the Chinese just doing their job. Though the hostel was quite pricey for drinks and internet, but all you have to do is go to the 24 hour shop next door. That afternoon we had time to check out a few art museums around People Square, which was a good time killer.
Shanghai is a city that did not appeal to me that much in the first place. The reason for going to Shanghai was to go to Hangzhou, and also to see the skyline off the city. You may think that is sad but I have a thing for skylines. With Hangzhou it is a nice city, but as a tourist, you could not spend more than a day there, you will find yourself visiting the park, which is splendfully beautiful. The park is around a 20 to 30 minute walk from the railway station, which is fairly easy to get to (you can't get lost). Do not be shy to take a one hour gondola ride on the lake. It will set you back 160rmb which you split between four, thought if it is only the two of you, you can barter down to 80-100rmb, though again it aint that hard work to barter down. The gondola ride is one of the most relaxing and beautiful things that you will probably do in China. Do it!
It is best to get the train back to Shanghai from Hangzhou as the buses do not run that regular. Train number D5652 departs Hangzhou at 17:30pm getting back to Shanghai at 19:17pm costing 63rmb. It is a fast express train


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Another weekend, another road trip, and this time it is back to Beijing, again. This weekend had a purpose. The purpose was to visit the Great Wall in its original condition. Again I travelled to Beijing with a friend who also wanted to visit the same section.

We arrived at the Dongzhimen Long Distance bus station around 8:00am to catch bus number 980 to Simatai part of the wall


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This must be the best job in the world, when someone like myself can take so many weekend trips away to parts of China, just last week I was able to pop down to Xian, Luoyang and Zhengzhou and now this weekend popping back to Datong for four days to see what I misses out the last time.

On the Thursday, a friend and myself left Chengde on train service K7712 at 1330pm to Beijing (hard seat - 41rmb). We arrived into Beijing at 1748pm and spent the few hours in the evening walking around before catching the train to Datong


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Another long weekend gone by which meant another short break away. This time I headed off to Xian, Luoyang and Zhengzhou for a quick 72 hour road trip to see what I want to see.

On the Friday afternoon, I hadn’t my normal classes, so I was fortunate to hop on the 13:30pm train from Chengde to Beijing (service number K7712 costing 41rmb for a hard seat) before making my way to Beijing West station to take train number T43 to Xian at 21:36pm (costing 256rmb for a hard sleeper). This train arrived into Xian just minutes before 9am. From there, I walked out the station and to my left where all the long distance buses congregate, where bus number 306, of which is a coach takes you to the Terracotta Army. It will take around one hour by coach as it drops off a few people along the way at the Hot Springs. The coach cost 7rmb each way


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