(please back date to 2/7/13)
As planned, I woke up early this morning, hopped the metro, and grabbed a pastry at Beijing’s South Railway Station. I have never been to this one before. Beijing has two classic, railway stations that service trains all over the country, Beijing zhan and Beijing xi (北京站／北京西) or Beijing Central and Beijing West. These are the stations that have been in the city forever. They are the stations I mentioned in an earlier post lay host to scenes both chaotic and at times, shocking. They are the type I have grown accustomed to. But Beijing’s new south station is none of these things. It is big, organized, and operates with the efficiency of Beijing’s incredible airport. It feels like an airport. It is also the station that services China’s new Beijing to Tianjin high speed rail connection. The ride between cities takes a little over a half hour and the train averages 280 km/h (or about 180 mph) which is pretty fast for a train. And the trains are brand new and well designed. The seats are more efficiently laid out, they are comfier, and the ride is smoother. And the bathrooms are western style (no squatting) and clean! This was a nice ride.
I’ll admit though the ride was probably the best part of my day. My sole goal for today was to find the ocean and take some photos and film clips to add to the blog and the film I’m putting together. And I thought this shot was essential because I have given the trip a coast to coast theme. So, let me just start off by saying I didn’t find the ocean. Actually, I found it, but I couldn’t see it. Doesn’t really count - no photos...
I had planned out last night before I left how I was going to find the ocean. I tried looking through the guidebook but there really was no mention of the ocean as an attraction so I had to do some clever planning if I was going to find it on my own. Tianjin is well known as Beijing’s port city. Beijing doesn’t border the ocean. It is a little inland but Tianjin acts as its major port hub and services most of northern China (Shanghai and Hong Kong service central and southern China respectively). But Tianjin doesn’t really border the ocean either. Tianjin was built around a river that runs to the sea and this was important historically because in the early 1800’s, when the European and American trading powers started breaking into China and forcing trade with the East, they ran their ships up this river and built a foreign city which is now Tianjin. In fact, the old section of the city today still feels like a European town because much of the original European style architecture still exists. There are cobblestone paved roads bordered by high European built buildings and churches and banks. Everything is just occupied by Chinese companies now. But ships these days are too big to sail up the river to Tianjin to onload and offload goods. They have to stay in an ocean, deepwater harbor, which is even further outside of Tianjin in a place called Tanggu. But you can take what they call the light rail to Tanggu, basically an hour on the local metro line that will get you to the harbor. However, since all I had was google maps for info, I decided to pick the metro stop that looked closest to the actual ocean, get out, and walk to it. But what I picked turned out to be the Tianjin Free Trade Zone and one of the largest container ship loading station areas in Asia. So when I got out of the station I could see where the ocean was supposed to be and I walked in that direction.
The area was destitute. No shops, no cars, no people. Just huge trucks, highway roads, and some office buildings. I walked under highway underpasses, through office parks, then through undeveloped dirt fields until I finally found a road that aimed straight for the sea. This was also the road that every trucker carrying a container from the ships used to go in and out of the container yards. I walked down this dusty road, with trucks whizzing by my side, for about an hour when I got within what must have been 50 yards of the ocean because I could see the container cranes offloading containers from a ship. I could see the ship! But everywhere I turned were impassable gates and fences that blocked my passage to the water. I was surrounded by container yards and secured entry points for trucks. You’d think somewhere in this area I could walk around to see even a sliver of water. And it was right there! But no. I walked the area for over an hour looking for a possible route (I probably shouldn’t have been wandering around there). And I finally gave up and turned back. In retrospect I could have technically risked jumping the gates to take a quick look through the container yards but one thing I learned from working on ships for the last four years and frequently pulling in and out of places like this is that you can’t mess around in these yards. These ships and the cargo they carry are worth millions and cities invest heavily in security: cameras, armed guards, etc. so that the major shipping companies will feel safe sending there ships and goods there and in turn investing in the city. So if you hop the fence you risk the police and I’m two days from hopping a train I can’t miss. This wasn’t worth the risk.
So two trains, four industrial roads, eight stray dogs, and three hours of my life later I had nothing to show for my trip. No sea. Mopy, I went back to Tianjin and decided to walk around and see some of the sites. As I mentioned before, Tianjin has some pretty cool, old European streets. The most famous is Jiefang Beilu (解放北路) which means Liberation Street North and it runs south of the train station, across from the river. This street is paved with stones and used to be the location of all the old foreign banks and consulates. When the foreign powers occupied the area, every country put a branch of their bank there. Now each one houses a Chinese Bank. The coolest building (in my opinion) is the old Bank of Yokohama building which is now the home of the Bank of China in Tianjin. I also found today the old Belgian Consulate (now the Agricultural Bank of China) and the old American Navy Club building (which is now a bank I didn’t recognize). But it was dead cold today and I was tired from my previous adventure through the sticks so I didn’t stay too long. I hopped a train back to Beijing and am resting in the hostel.
I have one more day of preparations left. I am going to sleep in and relax, eat a good breakfast, and do some functional chores (and play with my new camera!). Probably I will work on my new film which is also the first part of a multi-part film based on this trip. The first part will cover all of Xinjiang and Gansu up to Beijing. It’s a fun side project.
As planned, I woke up early this morning, hopped the metro, and grabbed a pastry at Beijing’s South Railway Station. I have never been to this one before. Beijing has two classic, railway stations that service trains all over the country, Beijing zhan and Beijing xi (北京站／北京西) or Beijing Central and Beijing West. These are the stations that have been in the city forever. They are the stations I mentioned in an earlier post lay host to scenes both chaotic and at times, shocking. They are the type I have grown accustomed to. But Beijing’s new south station is none of these things. It is big, organized, and operates with the efficiency of Beijing’s incredible airport. It feels like an airport. It is also the station that services China’s new Beijing to Tianjin high speed rail connection. The ride between cities takes a little over a half hour and the train averages 280 km/h (or about 180 mph) which is pretty fast for a train. And the trains are brand new and well designed. The seats are more efficiently laid out, they are comfier, and the ride is smoother. And the bathrooms are western style (no squatting) and clean! This was a nice ride.
I’ll admit though the ride was probably the best part of my day. My sole goal for today was to find the ocean and take some photos and film clips to add to the blog and the film I’m putting together. And I thought this shot was essential because I have given the trip a coast to coast theme. So, let me just start off by saying I didn’t find the ocean. Actually, I found it, but I couldn’t see it. Doesn’t really count - no photos...
I had planned out last night before I left how I was going to find the ocean. I tried looking through the guidebook but there really was no mention of the ocean as an attraction so I had to do some clever planning if I was going to find it on my own. Tianjin is well known as Beijing’s port city. Beijing doesn’t border the ocean. It is a little inland but Tianjin acts as its major port hub and services most of northern China (Shanghai and Hong Kong service central and southern China respectively). But Tianjin doesn’t really border the ocean either. Tianjin was built around a river that runs to the sea and this was important historically because in the early 1800’s, when the European and American trading powers started breaking into China and forcing trade with the East, they ran their ships up this river and built a foreign city which is now Tianjin. In fact, the old section of the city today still feels like a European town because much of the original European style architecture still exists. There are cobblestone paved roads bordered by high European built buildings and churches and banks. Everything is just occupied by Chinese companies now. But ships these days are too big to sail up the river to Tianjin to onload and offload goods. They have to stay in an ocean, deepwater harbor, which is even further outside of Tianjin in a place called Tanggu. But you can take what they call the light rail to Tanggu, basically an hour on the local metro line that will get you to the harbor. However, since all I had was google maps for info, I decided to pick the metro stop that looked closest to the actual ocean, get out, and walk to it. But what I picked turned out to be the Tianjin Free Trade Zone and one of the largest container ship loading station areas in Asia. So when I got out of the station I could see where the ocean was supposed to be and I walked in that direction.
The area was destitute. No shops, no cars, no people. Just huge trucks, highway roads, and some office buildings. I walked under highway underpasses, through office parks, then through undeveloped dirt fields until I finally found a road that aimed straight for the sea. This was also the road that every trucker carrying a container from the ships used to go in and out of the container yards. I walked down this dusty road, with trucks whizzing by my side, for about an hour when I got within what must have been 50 yards of the ocean because I could see the container cranes offloading containers from a ship. I could see the ship! But everywhere I turned were impassable gates and fences that blocked my passage to the water. I was surrounded by container yards and secured entry points for trucks. You’d think somewhere in this area I could walk around to see even a sliver of water. And it was right there! But no. I walked the area for over an hour looking for a possible route (I probably shouldn’t have been wandering around there). And I finally gave up and turned back. In retrospect I could have technically risked jumping the gates to take a quick look through the container yards but one thing I learned from working on ships for the last four years and frequently pulling in and out of places like this is that you can’t mess around in these yards. These ships and the cargo they carry are worth millions and cities invest heavily in security: cameras, armed guards, etc. so that the major shipping companies will feel safe sending there ships and goods there and in turn investing in the city. So if you hop the fence you risk the police and I’m two days from hopping a train I can’t miss. This wasn’t worth the risk.
So two trains, four industrial roads, eight stray dogs, and three hours of my life later I had nothing to show for my trip. No sea. Mopy, I went back to Tianjin and decided to walk around and see some of the sites. As I mentioned before, Tianjin has some pretty cool, old European streets. The most famous is Jiefang Beilu (解放北路) which means Liberation Street North and it runs south of the train station, across from the river. This street is paved with stones and used to be the location of all the old foreign banks and consulates. When the foreign powers occupied the area, every country put a branch of their bank there. Now each one houses a Chinese Bank. The coolest building (in my opinion) is the old Bank of Yokohama building which is now the home of the Bank of China in Tianjin. I also found today the old Belgian Consulate (now the Agricultural Bank of China) and the old American Navy Club building (which is now a bank I didn’t recognize). But it was dead cold today and I was tired from my previous adventure through the sticks so I didn’t stay too long. I hopped a train back to Beijing and am resting in the hostel.
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| Jiefang Beilu |
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| Former Bank of Yokohama, now Bank of China |
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| Modern Tianjin |
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