Yes, the bullet train was SWEET! It was undoubtedly both the smoothest and fastest train I had ever been on. I arrived at the train station 8 minutes before one of the trains was going to take off—went through security, bought a ticket, and went through the train station’s equivalent of an airport terminal before it left the station. Super efficient.
Upon arriving, one of the first things I noticed about the city of Tianjin is that everything seemed new (like everywhere else in China…). Tianjin is one of China’s Economic Development Centers, where it’s known as a technology factory city and a major port. Companies like Intel, Samsung, and Motorola all have factories here in Tianjin. By being one of the Economic Development Centers, the Chinese government pours a lot of money into the city to renovate and upgrade buildings and improve the quality of life...the 12 million residents of Tianjin are sure to be happy about that.
I heard from one of the students studying at the Tianjin University that the government plans to build an additional 45 high-rises within the next 10 or so years. If I were to hear that 45 high-rises were going to be built in a U.S. city in about 10 years I wouldn't believe it; but in China they mean business, and they have shown with cities like Shenzhen and Guangzhou that they can bring livelihood and a bunch of buildings to a city in a matter of a few short years! And they will be making it very eco-friendly…here are a few of the concept pictures. It looks awesome.
In downtown Tianjin, there was an “ancient cultural” street where most of the small buildings were constructed in a similar fashion to the Chinese architecture found in the Qing and Ming dynasties; this cultural street was made to replicate this style of architecture, but was constructed within the past 20 years (so the actual ancient-ness of it is questionable). After spending a considerable amount of time in the cultural sector, I ventured further into downtown towards the more recently developed part of the city.
In this section of the city, there was a 5x5 block square of a shopping plaza, where you could walk outside on beautiful tiles and stop into stores whenever you feel like—while walking through this shopping plaza, I passed by 3 different Nike stores, 3 different McDonalds, and 3 different KFCs. And two of these McDonalds were less than a block away (and they were both very luxurious McDonalds…well, as luxurious as McDonalds can be)!
From the downtown shopping area, the last place that was visited today was St. Joseph’s Cathedral. Although it wasn’t open, I was still able to go inside the gate and take a few pictures—it was very purdy.
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