How wonderful to wake up to a delicious hot breakfast? Of all the hotel breakfasts, the hotels in Asia are on another level, in terms of variety and quality! Hampton by Hilton Tianjin Five Great Avenues had a spread of sweets that my kids were eyeing on.
Local cold dishes (appetizer):
Eggs, fried rice, fried noodles, and also dishes that can be lunch!
A made-to-order noodle soup station with lots of sides to add to the yummy noodles!
After the full breakfast, we were all charged up to explore Tianjin. First, we took Didi to the Drum Tower of Tianjin (天津鼓楼).
The square was filled with old architectural style buildings (those were rebuilt):
On one corner of the square was the Tianjin Guangdong Club (广东会馆), Guangdong is the province where Jason and I grew up so we went in to check it out. Admission was very cheap like no more than 20 RMB ($3).
Inside the club, it has better view of the Drum Tower.
Houses back in the old days were like this:
But inside is a museum where they display Guangdong Opera clothing and accessories. My daughter loved the long dresses and colorful headpiece.
The main building is the stage where there was an opera show starting. I think you have to pay extra for the show but we just walked by and took some photos.
I was expecting the show to be Guangdong Opera but it wasn’t; it was Chuan Opera (Sichuan’s famous mask-changing opera). Different region of China has its own type of Opera and named after the region.
The performer changes the mask to another mask by a split second; it was entertaining for the kids to watch.
We didn’t stay for long for the show since we didn’t pay for it so we left and continued our exploration. Across the street from the Drum Tower, there’s another museum: Tianjin Old Town Museum (天津老城博物馆). If I remember correctly, this is free to enter so we went in to check it out.
The two rows of red lanterns lining this long corridor stood out. My daughter was eager to take a photo with the lanterns!
Most of the ancient Chinese housing was built for generations living together so it consisted of many houses inside past the main entrance. Kitchen, living room, dining room, etc are all individual “houses”. Each family also has its own house with rooms depending on how rich the family is.
This house displayed old furniture and decors:
Outside the house was this tree where wishes written on red wood were hung on it.
This house is the bedroom:
The dining room for the individual family:
Another room for tea:
The museum wasn’t big but it was quiet and peaceful for us to show the kids how the houses in ancient China looked like 🙂 Right outside the museum is this street filled with shops and food stalls. I guess the food stalls open at night so it was very quiet.
After that, we took the DiDi to Italian Barrack (原天津意大利兵营), formerly a military garrison of the Italian concession, to check out its architecture. Now it is converted to cafes and shops.
It was very quiet when we were there, only a few coffee shops were open so we didn’t stay for long.
We actually went there to check out the Liang Qichao Memorial Hall (梁启超纪念馆) which was around the corner. Liang Qichao was a Chinese politician, social and political activist, journalist, and intellectual who had a significant influence on the political reformation of modern China. He inspired Chinese scholars and activists with his writings and reform movements. He has the same last name and also from Taishan same as Jason’s ancestors 😉 The memorial hall consisted of two buildings.
The first one displayed timeline of this life, my daughter pointed out an old photograph and said that boy looked like his brother. My son was scratching his head that “I am not” LOL!
Exhibition rooms of his paintings and calligraphy.
The second house was his former residence, where it displays the living room, dining room, study room, and bedrooms.
At that time it was well into noon so we decided to leave because the kids were hungry. We went to a restaurant known for its traditional Tianjin dishes as well as roasted duck called Runzeyuan Restaurant (润泽园饭庄).
Their extensive menu (with English translation) with affordable pricing:
I thought the piggy was cute so we ordered it; it tasted like marinated meat, not sweet like I thought by its look LOL. It was interesting like eating jelly.
Each dish’s portion turned out to be HUGE!!! Their Peking duck was very good, comparable to the ones we had in Beijing and better yet, cheaper. My daughter fall in love with Peking duck after this trip! I found the traditional Tianjin dishes are saucy but not salty as I thought with the amount of sauce.
We were so full and had lots of leftovers, too bad our room didn’t have a microwave!
After the delicious lunch, went to check out the Great Fifth Avenue pedestrian shopping street.
The street was filled with beautiful mansions but those got converted to shops and cafes.
We saw Care Bears!
The rabbit hole was cute!
This entrance was covered with artificial flowers!
We stopped at toy shops for the kids, but not many interesting things. We walked all the way to Minyuan Square (民园广场). It’s a stadium converted to a park for events and filled with influencers taking photos. Surrounding the square are coffee shops, I was wondering do they really have that much demand for that many shops?
The coffee shops are each uniquely decorated to attract influencers for sure!
Next, we walked to Qingwangfu (庆王府) a palace of Prince Qing in the late Qing Dynasty. Unlike what I thought of ancient Chinese palaces, I was surprised to see that his palace was very Western-style. There were countless chandeliers and stained glasses.
It was a rare event that my daughter was posing with her fan; she must be in a good mood. She attracted the photographers LOL!
The kitchen has this long bar table filled with colorful bar chairs.
There were more chandeliers in the middle of the courtyard. There, it has a shop to rent ancient/old time costumes and they also offered make-up and photography services. I found it weird that a historical place would allow such a commercial operation.
The palace grounds have a fountain (not running) and a coffee shop (yes, coffee shops are everywhere in Tianjin)!
This rock fountain was closed and the whole ground area was roped off with a sign said do not step in. My daughter asked why they don’t let people walk in there, those are fake grass??? LOL!!!!
It was a quick visit; I didn’t find that interesting about the palace besides the mix of Chinese and Western styles.
Next, we headed over to Lishunde Hotel Tianjin (天津利顺德大饭店) which part of the hotel became a muesum: Astor Hotel Museum. To visit, they charge a hefty admission like 100 RMB! The hotel was built back in 1863.
The historical part of the hotel where a lot of influencers (once again) paid to use as backdrops for classic-style photos.
The rotating door which also has sign that it was built in 1863.
The entrance to the museum:
Down the stairs to the museum where it displays the historical restaurant:
Wall of paintings of different generals and important historical figures back in the days.
My daughter loved the dress in the painting 😀
Classical furniture and even a typewriter, I haven’t seen one for a long time!
This corner looked traveled back in time with a huge antique gramophone disc player.
My daughter wanted a pic with it, doesn’t it looked like a big flower?
The kids had fun seeing the old things from the old days.
I don’t think the museum is worth the admission but if you need a backdrop for a classic engagement photo, then sure. After the museum, we took Didi to the infamous Gou Bu Li Restaurant (狗不理大酒店) known for its baos!!! Their mascot was super cute and I like how they turned Gou Bu Li to “Go Believe” as they sounded similar.
We booked a private suite and it looked like a Chinese palace! We ordered the soup recommended by the waiter, it was sour-based but was good to make you feel more hungry 😛
A traditional Tianjin dish: fried fish with gravy and fried bun to dip; the fish meat was so tender and flavorful with the sauce!
The main character – their famous Gou Bu Li baos!!! The skin was so fluffy and the meat inside was super moist and flavorful!!!
The pumpkin covered with salty-egg yorks was an interesting combo of flavors which blended so well together.
Stir-fried lettuce was crunchy and not too oily.
More baos, this was seafood and meat, super yummy too!
I was already full with the baos LOL… lastly, another traditional Tianjin dish – tofu in soup. The tofu wasn’t the silky kind so it was okay.
The food was very good and their famous baos lived up to their reputation!
After the delicious dinner, we took Didi to the marina to do a nighttime cruise to see Tianjin’s beautiful architecture at night. Cities in China came alive at night unlike the boring USA. In the boat, we immediately has the front row view of Tianjin Eye (天津之眼). Nowadays, many cities have something like this, which doesn’t appeal to me anymore.
The “Good Eat Street” – night market filled with food stalls!
The apartments were all lit up and with laser beams pointing to the Tianjin Eye.
Cruising along the Xinkai River with old and new style architectures lined up on each side of the riverbank was a treat for photos.
The colonial-style buildings and I think we passed by the Astor Hotel that we visited earlier.
Each skyscraper was an architectural masterpiece with its own distinctive design. Unlike the boring skyscrapers in the US that all looked alike.
We cruised under many bridges and this one looked like French-style.
The St. Regis Tianjin’s design looked like a big window.
And many squares filled with people shopping and karaoke-ing.
All the way to the Century Clock (世纪钟) one of Tianjin’s iconic landmarks.
The cruise was around an hour, it was beautiful to see Tianjin light up at night and its liveliness. My son was too sleepy and he felt asleep; it was too late for him. After the cruise, we took Didi back to our hotel and got the kids in bed as fast as we could. Then, we packed up and had a few hours of sleep to wake up early for our ride back to Beijing Airport to catch our flight back to our hometown for the Dragon Boat Festival!
Overall, it was worth a quick visit to see Tianjin, we enjoyed its more relaxing atmosphere, good and cheaper food than Beijing, and saw a mix of old and new architecture.
