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Tianjin
is China’s third largest city, an independent municipality
with a population of 9.5 million that is a major commercial and
industrial center as well as the biggest port in north China. 137
kilometers (85 miles) southeast of Beijing, Tianjin is situated at the
confluence of five tributaries of the Haihe River, 50 km from the Gulf
of Bohai.
Tianjin
is best known for its
streetscapes of colonial era buildings, a residue of its status as a
Treaty Port after 1858. Now a center of multinational businesses
concentrated in the new satellite city known as TEDA
(Tianjin Economic Development Area), Tianjin has an extensive modern
infrastructure, and is known for the high quality of its industrial
products.
Early settlement in the
Tianjin region dates
back to the Warring States period, but Tianjin’s later prominence was
primarily tied to the rise of nearby Beijing as the capital of northern
nomadic dynasties and later of the country as a whole. Tianjin served
primarily as a storage, sale, and distribution center for
agricultural products from the south in the 12th century. Under the
Mongols, who first established Beijing as the capital of the entire
country, Tianjin served as a storage and trans-shipment point for the
grain taxes that were shipped from the south
Tianjin’s prosperity
proved a lure for Western trading nations. In 1856 British and French
troops used the boarding of a British ship by Chinese troops in search
of pirates as an excuse to attack the forts guarding the Haihe
River. The defeated Chinese were forced to sign the 1858 Treaty of
Tianjin, which opened the port to foreign trade and the sale of opium.
Other European nations and Japan followed, establishing distinctive
independent concessions on the riverside areas, each with a distinctive
architectural style -- variously English Victorian, Italian Roman style
streets, French chateaux styles, and German Bavarian villas.
Tianjin became a center
of urban modernization and internationalism in the early years of the
20th century. Hotels like the Astor received famous guests such as
Herbert Hoover and Sun Yat-sen, and one of China’s first elevators was
installed there in 1924. Meanwhile, heavy silting of the Haihe
River led to construction of a new port at Tanggu, 50 km downriver, as
Tianjin lost its character as a major port city. The 1976 Tangshan
earthquake caused extensive damage to
the city, and it was closed to foreign visitors until repairs
were completed. The establishment of the Tianjin Economic and
Development Area was a major spur to investment and economic
revitalization. |
