Okay, so it isn’t quite Italy, but take a look at the above photos, mentally add some morning haze and then throw in some additional cloudiness as if you just woke up, and tell me that you wouldn’t be confused too.
The Chinese signs all around the stations belie the Italian façade across the water, but at 7 in the morning it was a strange and surreal experience to step off the train into this environment. It left me wondering even more about this country and the surprises it presents at every turn. Tianjin is no exception to this, and rather than walk through chronologically my time there, I think I’d rather just go through the scenes of the city with some comments on urban planning and development because if there is anything Tianjin can teach us about, it is development.
But first a bit of background on the city. Situated about 80 km southeast of Beijing, Tianjin is often called the “East Gate” to the neighboring capitol. Like Shanghai and Beijing, it is both a city and a municipality and is built on sediment deposited from rivers entering what is now its major port, the Bohai Gulf. Like Shanghai, the city was forced open by Europeans after the Second Opium War and divided into concessions for the French, British, Japanese, Germans, Russians, Austro-Hungarians, Belgians, and yes, the Italians. These countries provided an international flair to the city that persists today alongside the Chinese cultural centers like the drum towers and old streets. In more recent times, Tianjin has served as a vital port to Beijing and recently was dubbed the third growth hub of the country—Shenzhen was the first, opened to broader economic trade a couple decades ago as an experiment for the government to see how it could bring in foreign business without fully acquiescing to capitalism. Shanghai came next with the Pudong financial area, and now it is time for Tianjin. This development is exactly what brought me to the city. Part of it will become the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City, a bold new vision under construction that looks to avoid the fate of Huangbaiyu and Dongtan. But I will save that commentary for a different post.
This concession history brings me back now to the Italian vision I beheld when exiting the train. Tianjin has become an interesting place since its concession history. Somewhat forgotten in the development craze until the Olympics ushered in wider roads and a soccer stadium in 2008, it has survived off of, as the advertisements said on the train, its reputation as a “Glamorous City.”
The Olympic Stadium: The Water Drop
As I discussed in one of my “Shades of Shanghai” posts, many Chinese do not care for historical preservation of shikumen and lilong style houses as they are reminiscent of poorer lives and do not embody the bold new future of the country. So the glamour of Tianjin is not of the ancient Chinese variety that I and other tourists seek on our trips through China. Instead, everywhere in the city Western styles are preserved and reconstructed to an extent greater than anywhere else I’ve seen—even perhaps Shanghai. I can tell you now that what you see across the river is not original in any sense. It was constructed by Italian architects but in more recent years as the government was trying to add some aesthetic flair to the city and live up to its billing of the “Glamorous City.” In Shanghai, architecture is preserved for its historic value. Here not only is Western architecture preserved but it is also reconstructed. Take a look at some of the examples below of the reconstructions and originals to see just how Tianjin looks.
Reconstructed Church
You know, come to think of it, as I read up on the Tianjin Eye, a giant ferris wheel visible from the road near my hostel, and the still incomplete Beijing Great Wheel, I came across a quote from a website that read “If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then China is just brimming with adulation.”
I really like this quote and think now that it applies very well here to the faux-Italian buildings at which I found myself gawking on arrival. I suppose that this is China’s way of imitating the West. It could be an attempt in the midst of rapid development to appear developed by adopting the visual characteristics of Western societies. The idea of adopting Western culture and ideas easily and cheaply, if you will, seems to permeate society here and could help account for the existence of so many different pirated movies and books. Certainly the existence of ubiquitous pirating (the pirated goods are sold at supposedly legitimate bookstores) is an indication of a lower level of development than the US and Europe, but it could also be indicative of a mad scramble to adopt Western culture wholesale. This, in the sense of sustainability, provides more evidence for the idea that we will see increases in energy use in China as the years wear on. The scramble for Westernization will manifest itself through technological adoption and greater utilization of energy to make life more convenient and reduce the hardships that some here taut as evidence of China’s greater energy efficiency (I’m talking about the willingness to suffer through harder winters by putting on a coat rather than turning up the heat or wandering the apartment and street shirtless in Shanghai summers instead of flipping on the A/C). Bringing this back to buildings though, when China rips off Western ideas they are never quite the same. Someone quipped to me that Chinese won’t by “Made in China” because it will break in a month. But with the Italian Town, it was more that you could tell the roofs were plastic or vinyl, not tiles. The facades were concrete, not marble, and you could see the seams in the mold castings. It’s like the box of Disney movies I saw at a store that include Aladdin, but not the Disney version—it’s close, but not quite right.
However I digress from this tale about my tour of Tianjin. I believe that the Italian Town goes beyond mere emulation of the West. Though I was told by Nie Ning, the Secretary General of an investment corporation in Tianjin, that the development was aesthetically motivated (he said it looked nice and so it was built), I believe that the motivation is to attract tourism and foreign business, and the ad on the train from Shanghai helps back this up. Tianjin lacks in the history of Beijing or the international flair of Shanghai. So instead, it has built a new tale which is a combination both its larger cousins—it has built a Western history. From a sustainability standpoint, should this ploy work it will diversify the economy of Tianjin beyond that of a port city and industrial center for Beijing. The reconstructions also provide areas for foreigners to enjoy a relaxing evening out and some Western food, perhaps a facet of life the city sees as critical to attract investment beyond factories. If it wants a service sector to develop with Western nations at the forefront, perhaps the city leaders feel they need Western services.
Yet what is likely to attract most foreign companies is not this Italian village but rather the area set out for economic development. This was the main reason I had ventured to what many in Beijing clearly viewed as a wasteland. Tianjin can be divided into two areas—Downtown Tianjin and the Binhai New Area. The latter is the new growth pole, my primary destination, and the main attraction for foreign investment. Before I talk about it in detail though, let me first talk about getting to it. The two centers of Tianjin are connected by the fastest light rail in the world which, at speeds of over 100 km/hr, takes about 30-40 minutes to fly between the two areas. While convenient, what confused me a bit the first time I made this ride was the scenery outside the train. From Tianjin, you travel through a bit of city off to your left hand side before seemingly leaving the urban behind abruptly in favor of farmland with the occasional manufacturing factory serviced by unskilled workers from small nearby neighborhoods—perhaps smaller and with worse living conditions (no paved roads, tin roofs, reused brick walls. It was almost like being back in Kenya) that really put into perspective the idea of China as a growing nation. For these people, growth will likely mean sprawl that threatens to remove them from their land. Factories and power plants also dot the landscape here, telling a tale of environmental degradation and rapid expansion to support the growing city. This truly is the city’s underbelly, yet it is here on display for all to see. Given the attention to detail and “face” of the government I believe this will change, but until then it is like the images below.
After the light rail ride, I arrived in Binhai to find a town unlike what I expected. My first stop was the Holiday Inn for a conference on the eco-city. While only a few years old (everything in Binhai is only a few years old), the building already is showing signs of wear. In the water-starved north of China, it is easy to question the wisdom of building an industrial center complete with glittering glass buildings whose exteriors need constant washing to maintain their glamour. The Holiday Inn has clearly suffered this low-water fate as its windows are now dulled with sand, its steel beams weathered and rusting. The appearance made me question the choice to build such a large industrial complex in a place where water must be piped from the south just to meet the residential demand. The anticipated growth in population both from migration to the city and the added industrial capacity will mean that even if a new “Glamorous City” is built, it, like many other buildings in China, will soon appear much older than it is. The buildings will have a decreased lifespan and diminished energy performance. From an environmental standpoint, such location is lose-lose. Either you use a lot of water to maintain the appearance and performance characteristics of the building to uphold your environmental and economic performance, or you let the sands and winds take their toll, reduce daylighting and PV output and wear down your facades and soon you must either replace the building stock or live with leaky structures.
The Holiday Inn is just one example of a building in Binhai though, so I was eager to see how the rest of the new area compared. Frankly, I was disappointed. Despite the presence of an eco-city in the development, the ideas of a sustainable city have not permeated the rest of Binhai. A bus ride through the city revealed massive 6-12 lane roads with large, single-story warehouses and manufacturing centers dividing the few shopping malls and pedestrian areas. Despite lawns and landscaping around sidewalks, there was clearly no pedestrian scale here. No services, no mixed use, and a lack of public transportation (despite the extensive masterplanning, there is no subway) mean that people will not want to live here. The convention center was deserted despite the presence of a public exhibition on new technologies, and the mall next door still had half of its spaces empty as a testament to the lack of customers even during the lunch rush hour when I visited. I suppose it is not the best metric, but the lack of a Starbucks in the area pretty much tells you that there are not many people here unless they have to be. Maybe as the area continues to develop it will change, but frankly, I’m not sure who would want to live in the high rises popping up in this otherwise industrial center. There is nowhere to walk to, nothing to do aside from work, and nothing to engage residents. Perhaps the spine of the light rail to Tianjin will provide these services, but even if it does that means that people must live away from where they work. For all of the hype about the eco-city here and the lessons it can provide at large for development in China, there was a failure here in its own neighborhood to adopt sustainable planning.
At the same time, all is not lost for Tianjin and Binhai—not yet. On my last day in town I was escorted to the Tianjin Planning Exhibition Hall by Nie Ning and his assistant, a nice guy who goes by the abbreviation TWJ.
Feeling like a VIP with this private tour, I got to see what the future of both downtown and Binhai look like, and I must say that I felt more hope and opportunity here than at any other time yet in China. Looking over the room-sized maps of the planned developments, I saw the scale of development yet to come.
Walking around downtown, numerous fences and forests of cranes indicate the rising of superblocks of apartments and new business areas. Trenches and workers around the new train station alert you to the expansion of the subway system from one line to five. Yet what is clearly missing is the impetus for “green” development. Aside from the eco-city, the models look the same and I suppose that is what inspired me. There is opportunity here to create a new model for a residential block and then actually try it in one of these many areas slotted for construction. And even if you are late to the game on that, the lack of public transit in the Binhai area could provide business and engineering challenges. Integrating the river that runs through Tianjin and Binhai into the public transit framework could offer quick trips across town by ferry and bus connections. The routes almost seemed pre-planned to me on the map, but I know they are not yet there. This means that there is room for someone to come in and develop them. Tianjin is just waiting for something to spark its development—a new economic model to launch it past just the industrial port and park it has become, past the reputation as Beijing’s factory, and into prominence among China’s and the world’s cities. The eco-city already provides some impetus for an environmental industry to take hold in Tianjin, but for me the massive scale of development that will occur here in the next 10-15 years is the real opportunity. Take lessons from the eco-city (which won’t even be finished until 2020) and create new lessons independent of it, and leverage them to create new eco-residential buildings, parks, and business centers. Then Tianjin will have the hottest commodity on the market—a real, scalable, working model for ecologically sound development. And if they can do that without using too much water, then they can export anywhere in the world. The water shortage will provide the impetus here—all that remains is the right minds to do it. But it better happen fast, otherwise the state-owned developers will quickly turn Tianjin’s promise into the fields of fenced off “tofu towers” I occupied in Shanghai. All hope for a pedestrian city will be lost as these shams of mixed use ecological building which in reality are monotonous, poorly-built towers divided too widely by swaths of manicured land. Fences and gates discourage mingling between residents and passersby, and the already limited walkability of Tianjin will be diminished to nothing save for in the reconstructed Western pedestrian areas. But like I said, hurry if you want to get in on this development—the cranes never stop and soon there will be no land left. Don’t believe me? Take a look at some views from the streets.
As much time as I spent in Tianjin pondering the vastness of its development, I did have some chances to get out and explore the city. So before I close today, I think I’ll mention a few things of note in the city. Despite the Western influence I mentioned above, Tianjin does have its Chinese side. Perhaps the best example is the Tianjin Water Park, a sprawling Chinese-style garden built around a lake.
Dotted with pagodas, pavilions, trees, and a ferris wheel set against the growing skyline of Tianjin, the park is a great place to sit, relax, and in my case, read Confucius. Sadly the smoke from the factories (many of which are right in the city) and the sand from the West grayed the sky every day I was in the city making the park less idyllic. For an idea of the sky, check out the pictures below—pretty gross if you ask me, but here is another sign of the true China and its ongoing development.
However it was still a pleasant place to relax and gave me a chance to see the Tianjin version of Shanghai’s Oriental Pearl Tower. Unlike its futuristic twin (for images, see my “Shades of Shanghai” post), this tower almost appears to be a smokestack, paying homage in my opinion to Tianjin’s growth as a factory city and manufacturing center. Even should the city evolve to a service economy and become world-class, this tower could be a powerful reminder of what began its growth and rise.
Tianjin’s other Chinese heritage areas are the drum tower and old street. Here, shops and hawkers peddle everything from Hot Wheels look-alikes to silk scrolls that they “made themselves” (in exactly the same stitchwork as every other shop owner in China). While these areas do have history as the commercial centers of old Tianjin, their history has long since given way to bright acrylic paints, flashing lights, and tile flooring designed to draw in tourist dollars. While a fun little stroll, I must say there is little special about these streets after you have visited similar ones in Nanjing, Shanghai, and every other city in China!
My last night in Tianjin, I sought out the second must-have dish at Empress Dowager Cixi’s favorite restaurant, Goubuli. After being led through the historic restaurant portion to a fast-food type place in the back, I purchased my steamed buns and dug in. The sweet white dough melts away as you chew on these creations leaving the marinated pork in the center to provide the salty, rich flavor. While a great treat, they were a bit pricier than I had expected (56 RMB for the meal below—expensive by Chinese standards!) but I suppose when your restaurant has been around for over 100 years and was a royal favorite, you can charge what you like and the customers, like me, will appear in droves.
Though resigned on my last day to miss out on the final Tianjin specialty, as I wandered the streets en route to the train station I encountered a man peddling the glutinous rice cake known as erduoyan from his cart. For under 5 RMB I walked away with my sweet, sticky prize—rice held together with far too much sugar to be healthy and interjected with some sort of paste, perhaps red-bean based, that provided a little flavor and a change of texture from the sweet rice. It was an excellent find, and the perfect way to cap my trip and relax a bit as I shot from Tianjin over to Beijing for my next adventure on the bullet train.
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