Mission 2012 - Off to Tianjin

Entry two of my China blog:

Day two and we were up early to get to the train station for our ride over to Tianjin. The journey takes less than 30 minutes with most of that speeding at around 300km/hour. We get out of the train in Tianjin and…POW…the real winter weather is starting to hit us hard. It was cold in Beijing, but it felt like Tianjin bumped it up another level…I guess its all preparation for the the serious stuff in Harbin!

Anyway coming out of the station, we grab a taxi…and you would not believe how hard it was to find a taxi that knew where the apartments we were staying at were located. Apparently Chinese people havent really grapsed the concept of street numbers yet…so unless you know the cross section that the place you are going to is near…you have little hope getting to your destination. 

After checking in the apartment…which I have to say was quite beautiful…we were off to see the sights of Tianjin!

Tianjin is a metropolis in northern China and one of the five national central cities of the country. It is the 6th largest city in terms of population with around 13 million people. It is also a sister city with Melbourne Australia!

First stop was 天津古`文化街 which is a market place with shops and street food. We basically tried everything and anything insight…not all good…but all interesting. After plenty of looking and eating…it was on to the next logical thing….LUNCH! Todays destination was 食品街, which is apparently well known in the area. I think the common theme of our travels is to eat basically everything and anything in sight! 

The afternoon we ventured out to a peaceful lake area that goes by the name of 海上公园…and you wouldnt believe who we saw…! 米老鼠 and 唐老鸭! Or Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck for those non-mandarin speakers out there! 

Anyhow after the mandatory photos…we were off for a stroll around the lake which was quite beautiful. 99% of the lake had frozen over, although you could see areas where cracks had begun to appear before it had re-frozen.

The walk was nice despite the cold temperatures. After this we headed back to the hotel where we prepared for our Hot Pot dinner!! Tonight we were dining at 海底捞火锅, which apparently is right up there in the Hot Pot game…and we werent disappointed! I wont list everything we ate otherwise we would be here all nighth, but needless to say we were treated to quite a feast and went home totally stuffed!!

Home was our destination after dinner where we showered…thoroughly of course to relieve us of the Hot Pot scent and off to bed!