4K One-Day Walking Tour of Tianjin at Chinese New Year! 🏮🐉🧨

*Full route below*
Join Cultural Keys’ host AJ Donnelly for a one-day walking tour around Tianjin at Chinese New Year!
Tianjin is a fascinating and underrated city in northern China about half an hour by bullet train from Beijing. It boasts traditional Chinese culture and Western architecture galore - and the tour doesn’t even include half of what the city has to offer!
This route takes in a small part of the former foreign concession area (French, Italian and what’s left of the Austro-Hungarian concession) before heading to a market for new year goods and a street where you can shop for traditional items, try delicious snacks, and see traditional arts and crafts in action. We finish up with a quick look at some New Year lantern/light displays!
Filmed in January 2024, just before the Year of the Dragon began!
Enjoy the video? Don’t forget to like and subscribe! Have any questions? Feel free to leave a comment!
The route:
- Exit out of Tianjin Train Station 天津站 onto the south square 南广场.
- From the square, bear right and cross Jiefang Bridge 解放桥 and walk south along Jiefang North Road 解放北路 into the former French Concession 法租界 .
- From Jiefang North Road turn onto Chifeng Road 赤峰道, and walk until you see the red-brick former French barracks.
- Head back onto Jiefang North Road for one block and turn onto Chengde Road 承德道, which will take you to Central Park 中心公园.
- From the park take Liaoning Road 辽宁路 onto Chifeng Road.
- Head to the right of the Porcelain House 瓷房子 and take Liaoning Road to Huazhong Road 华中路 where you turn right onto Heping Road 和平路.
- Take the alleyway next to Starbucks and go straight ahead until you come to a large crossing with Dagu Bridge 大沽桥 up ahead.
- At the end of the bridge, turn left onto Bo‘ai Road 博爱道 and cross the road at the first traffic lights.
- Ahead you’ll see Dante Plaza, which is one of the two main squares of the former Italian Concession 意式风情区.
- From Dante Plaza, head left and walk through to Marco Polo Square, then turn right. This brings you to Minzu Road 民族路 where you’ll find the former residence of Liang Qi-chao and the Italian barracks.
- Take the alley across from the barracks to see a Mao-era slogan.
- From the slogan, make a U-turn around the corner to take you back to the pedestrianized area of the former concession.
- From Marco Polo Square, turn onto Minzu Road and cross the two roads up ahead to take you back to the river.
- Walk along the river to your right until you get to the foot bridge with the glass steps. Cross the bridge and you’ll see Ancient Culture Street 古文化街 on your right.
- The decorations market is just beyond the south entrance to the street.
- Tian Hou Gong 天后宫 (the temple to Mazu) is halfway along Ancient Culture Street and Yu Huang Pavilion 玉皇阁 is at the north end on the right side.
- From the south gate of Ancient Culture Street, walk right (assuming you are exiting Ancient Culture Street) and walk along the avenue of trees to the main road 东马路; then turn left and walk in a straight line all the way back down Heping Road to the coin.
- Turn left onto Binjiang Avenue 滨江道 and follow that to Jiefang North Road.
- Turn left to cross the bridge back to the train station where you started!
Music (all from Pixabay):
Inspiring Chinese New Year by Monument_Music
Two Grands - Piano Bar Music - Jazz by Julius H.
Feel So Good by Darockart
Cool Piano Jazz by Julius H.
Chinese ancient style music love - ET11LX 古风 抒情 识 by ET11LX
Chinese Lunar New Year Celebration by Alex-Productions
Filmed with the DJI Pocket 3 and DJI Mic2.
🧧🧧🧧🧧🧧🧧🧧🧧
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[@annieyang5533]

Good video it's as if I have tour the city of Tianjin in person. As a Chinese living in Toronto I don't know much about China so your information is very helpful ❤❤.

[@CulturalKeys]

We are so glad to know that you enjoyed the video and found it helpful! 🙂Happy New Year!

[@TravelwithChanra]

Beautiful place! I hope one day I can visit there

[@CulturalKeys]

Definitely worth a visit! 🙂

[@user-ub2pm5st5q]

HAPPY SPRING FESTIVAL❤

[@CulturalKeys]

Happy Spring Festival!

[@user-ub2pm5st5q]

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR

[@CulturalKeys]

Happy Chinese New Year!

[@jacintochua6885]

Russia occuoied Tianjin in the late 1800s until the esrly 1900s, thus the Russian architecture seen.

[@CulturalKeys]

That's very interesting! We've been to Tianjin many, many times, but had never seen any Russian architecture. That's definitely something we'll look into! @@jacintochua6885

[@letystyles2082]

as an italian I didn't expect Tianjin to be so connected to us!

[@jinhoh9067]

Thank u for a wonder ful video n introduction of Tianjin. Hope to visit this city in the near future

[@CulturalKeys]

You are so welcome! It's definitely a great place to visit! 🙂

[@Kingdj103]

新年快乐！ Happy Chinese New Year!!

[@CulturalKeys]

And to you, too!

[@wengkiong]

Wonderful video, vicariously visiting Tianjin for the first time 😊

[@CulturalKeys]

That's exactly what we wanted to achieve with this video, so glad you enjoyed it! 🙂

[@guestonearth1274]

Beautiful city and amazing videos

[@CulturalKeys]

Thanks for saying so! Very much appreciated! 🙏

[@bunnyhei]

🎉Happy Spring festival!😊

[@CulturalKeys]

Happy Spring Festival, hope you have a great year of the dragon! 🐉

[@HermanMuda]

Great video about Tianjin, I studied there during 2011-2014 and visited back again in 2015 with my loved ones. I really love Tianjin and always promote this beautiful city to everyone I know. Next time, please show us Tianjin Wudadao and Tai'an Dao which is located in English Concession, I went there whenever I'm free. 😍

[@CulturalKeys]

Thanks! And for sure, we hope to have a lot more videos of Tianjin coming out this year. Always one of our favourite places to visit! 😁

[@user-gl2wu2fs8h]

👍👍😍 感谢分享！🙏🙏 龙年吉祥, 🐲🐉 身体健康, 🧧🧧 阖家幸福！🧨🧨🍊🍊

[@mlteodosio]

Wow! Is it easy to tour around Tianjin without me speaking Chinese? Any tips?

[@CulturalKeys]

Travelling around most large cities in China on foot is relatively simple as street signs and subways have English. And in Tianjin you have this video as your guide 😉

[@meenoz]

Finally a white guy pronouncing the J sound properly 😂

[@CulturalKeys]

Haha, we've lived in China for quite a while! But as you can hear, my Chinese is still very 马马虎虎 (just so so)! 😂

[@Nick-rr3pv]

And the most boring city on the Earth.

[@CulturalKeys]

Wow, genuinely surprised you think so! How long did you live there?

[@Nick-rr3pv]

7 years and counting in Beijing. Been few times on weekend trips to Tianjin. Pre Covid times when Beijing was fun, lots of foreigners from Tianjin would come to Nali Patio to have fun. All said the same thing. @@CulturalKeys

[@CulturalKeys]

We're based in Beijing, and travel to Tianjin any chance we get, simply because we love the history, culture and architecture of the city. We've been travelling there for 10+ years and haven't gotten bored so far. Of course, everyone is different, so I guess it just depends what you're interested in. :)

[@bobevans9996]

it's a good vid - thanks

[@CulturalKeys]

Thanks for saying so! Hope we can do more like this!

[@bobevans9996]

hi from seattle don't approve of what star buck did around the world or coca cola before it

[@bobevans9996]

u guys voices r musical enough - no need music help - truely

[@CulturalKeys]

Thanks for the feedback. Definitely something we'll bear in mind for future videos! 😊

[@bobevans9996]

there r chopsticks in front of him for customers - why use fingers "the chop sticks can do any thing the fingers can but better because they withstand heat n cold" so chinese beat god😂

[@CulturalKeys]

We personally prefer to never use those supplied chopsticks, as we prefer to avoid the waste. ❤

[@quneliza6259]

Do you use fork and knife at home? You may argue that those are not disposal. But you still need water and dish detergent to wash them after, right? To keep food clean is important. Chinese have told us: Disease gets into your body from the mouth; Whereas disaster comes out of that same mouth on the other hand.. 5,000 years of culture is packed with great wisdom, you know. @@CulturalKeys

[@CulturalKeys]

@@quneliza6259 "5,000 years of culture is packed with great wisdom, you know." Certainly! It's one of the many reasons we love living here so much. 😊

[@bobevans9996]

lose the music - natural sound or silence is fine - no one can choose music for another - it annoyingly compete with speech - sigh