Thursday, December 15, 2011
Beijing. Day 7 (Day 8 by itinerary)
Tianjin today. We checked out of our hotel in the morning and stuff our luggage onto the coach. We will go to Tianjin by the Intercity train that travels at speeds of around 290 km/h. We reach Tianjin in 35 mins. The return trip will be via bus.
AFter arrival in Tianjin, we take a taxi to the food street for lunch.
Tianjin is mainly for shopping and I had long planned to pick up some stuff here. Tidbits... not so much but the arts stuff here is nice and cheap compared to the stuff we're brought around to see in Beijing (jade, silk etc). Spent some time walking up and down 食品街. Every other shop sells the same thing so it doesn't really matter who you buy it from. My mum bought some 麻花 that was not from 十八街 though. Anyway, probably the taste will not differ much.
After lunch, we went to 文化街. This is a much larger area than the food street. My first aim was 泥人张. They have some very nice clay sculptures at reasonable prices.
There was also a 妈祖 temple here and we visited it as well. I kept thinking that there was a large shop with paper cuttings, but we couldn't find it. I think it's all the shops that have some kind of paper cuttings or another instead of one shop like 泥人张.
When you come to Tianjin, there are the 饮食三绝: 狗不理包子 (Goubuli buns), 十八街麻花 (mahua), 耳朵眼炸糕 (fried cakes).
When I last came with my Orchestra conductor, he said that there was also the 文化三绝: 泥人张 (clay figurines), 剪纸 (paper cutting), 笙王 (Maker of Sheng). Whether or not 笙王 is really counted as one of the three... I guess it depends on who you talk to. I believe others will tell you that calligraphy is the third. 笙王 is this person who makes the music instrument 笙. On my last visit to Tianjin, my Orchestra conductor claimed that I had technically seen all the 天津之绝 (Best of Tianjin).
Tianjin is also where my (ex) erhu instructor comes from. And also where some of the best erhu players come from. It's a good place, it is.
After Tianjin, we get back to Beijing, dinner and then we are headed off to a massage parlour. My parents and I didn't want to get a massage, as well as another family so we spent time lounging around their cafe area. I wasn't feeling too good either so it was getting kinda depressing as we waited. At least the cafe was warm!
Finally, after their massage session ended, we headed off to supper which was supposed to be dim sum. The restaurant screwed up and we got the regular dinner menu which really stressed us out cos we weren't really that hungry! Our SG tour leader was very upset and started screwing the restaurant crew over. They managed to get the restaurant to prepare century egg porridge, which was pretty much the only stuff we managed to eat.
We scurried away from the restaurant before they served the fish. It's scary fish I tell you. Same fish every meal.
From the supper place, we headed over to the airport. Our flight would depart at around 0250, so we reached the airport just after midnight. It was cold... and it was a bad idea to open my backpack's buckle outside the airport but I obviously didn't learn from breaking a buckle in Wangfujing... so I opened my backpack to stuff something in and one of the buckles 'tooth' broke. My backpack!! So sad.. if I had the patience to wait till I was in the airport, I would be warmer (less exposure to the winds) and my buckle would still be ok :(.
Oh well. The buckle was still functional.
Check in and prepare for departure back home!
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Tianjin today. We checked out of our hotel in the morning and stuff our luggage onto the coach. We will go to Tianjin by the Intercity train that travels at speeds of around 290 km/h. We reach Tianjin in 35 mins. The return trip will be via bus.
AFter arrival in Tianjin, we take a taxi to the food street for lunch.
Tianjin is mainly for shopping and I had long planned to pick up some stuff here. Tidbits... not so much but the arts stuff here is nice and cheap compared to the stuff we're brought around to see in Beijing (jade, silk etc). Spent some time walking up and down 食品街. Every other shop sells the same thing so it doesn't really matter who you buy it from. My mum bought some 麻花 that was not from 十八街 though. Anyway, probably the taste will not differ much.
After lunch, we went to 文化街. This is a much larger area than the food street. My first aim was 泥人张. They have some very nice clay sculptures at reasonable prices.
There was also a 妈祖 temple here and we visited it as well. I kept thinking that there was a large shop with paper cuttings, but we couldn't find it. I think it's all the shops that have some kind of paper cuttings or another instead of one shop like 泥人张.
When you come to Tianjin, there are the 饮食三绝: 狗不理包子 (Goubuli buns), 十八街麻花 (mahua), 耳朵眼炸糕 (fried cakes).
When I last came with my Orchestra conductor, he said that there was also the 文化三绝: 泥人张 (clay figurines), 剪纸 (paper cutting), 笙王 (Maker of Sheng). Whether or not 笙王 is really counted as one of the three... I guess it depends on who you talk to. I believe others will tell you that calligraphy is the third. 笙王 is this person who makes the music instrument 笙. On my last visit to Tianjin, my Orchestra conductor claimed that I had technically seen all the 天津之绝 (Best of Tianjin).
Tianjin is also where my (ex) erhu instructor comes from. And also where some of the best erhu players come from. It's a good place, it is.
After Tianjin, we get back to Beijing, dinner and then we are headed off to a massage parlour. My parents and I didn't want to get a massage, as well as another family so we spent time lounging around their cafe area. I wasn't feeling too good either so it was getting kinda depressing as we waited. At least the cafe was warm!
Finally, after their massage session ended, we headed off to supper which was supposed to be dim sum. The restaurant screwed up and we got the regular dinner menu which really stressed us out cos we weren't really that hungry! Our SG tour leader was very upset and started screwing the restaurant crew over. They managed to get the restaurant to prepare century egg porridge, which was pretty much the only stuff we managed to eat.
We scurried away from the restaurant before they served the fish. It's scary fish I tell you. Same fish every meal.
From the supper place, we headed over to the airport. Our flight would depart at around 0250, so we reached the airport just after midnight. It was cold... and it was a bad idea to open my backpack's buckle outside the airport but I obviously didn't learn from breaking a buckle in Wangfujing... so I opened my backpack to stuff something in and one of the buckles 'tooth' broke. My backpack!! So sad.. if I had the patience to wait till I was in the airport, I would be warmer (less exposure to the winds) and my buckle would still be ok :(.
Oh well. The buckle was still functional.
Check in and prepare for departure back home!
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