China - Day trip to Tianjin

Tianjin - Dec 2014

We took a day trip to Tianjin. To be honest, I do not have not much impression of Tianjin before the trip and now after the trip, I would have prefer Xi An instead. 

The tour guide took us to the biggest food mall in China that was selected as one of the “Top ten Tianjin attractions” in 1989 - Tianjin Nanshi Food Mall.

Basically, we were given 30-45 minutes to explore the three storey food mall which over 100 food shops and restaurants offering local delicacies. We were also told to buy from a few particular shops which were deemed more trustworthy. I chose to believe that tour guide is in collaboration with the mentioned shops.  

One of the unique snacks in Tianjin - Fried dough twist 麻花. It is sweet-smelling and crispy. Do you know this snack cannot go bad even after being stored for several months. 

The shifu was very skillful to draw a tank for this little boy.

Ear hole fried rice cake 耳朵眼炸糕

wheat meat 面筋. It looks very weird...

Honey soft cake 蜂密软糖

Next, we headed to Tianjin Ancient Culture Street 古文化街.

The street is famous for calligraphy and painting brushes of Four Treasures, cultural antiques, double-sided embroidery, jade carvings and art ceramics. It is the street where you can get all the chinese pottery souvenirs.

Terribly underdressed for a cold weather.

We were rushing for train back to Beijing so we literary walked past the 5th avenue and Italian town in very fast pace. I am the sort of people who like to stop, take pictures and enjoy the scenery. Oh well, this is the price you have to pay if you join a tour.

It is ironic that when I googled about Tianjin, it came out "With its cool sea breeze and fresh sea air you will definitely feel refreshed". But I can only remember haze, haze and haze.