Tianjin: a Chinese city pretending to be West

Plagiarism is what surprises most westerners visiting China. Leaving legal issues aside, the cultural aspect of plagiarism, or let’s say “direct inspiration” is quite relaxed here. For many years it is totally fine in China to find a smartphone, which looks almost the same as iPhone, but has proprietary OS inside (and even TV sometimes)… or a car that looks exactly like Volkswagen Passat, but have local manufacturer’s plaque on it.

The city of Tianjin went even further — it has districts that look like were built in late 19th century London and Amsterdam or early 20th century New York City. The trick is those buildings are just 3–5 years old.

You walk the city and sometimes it looks like part of Rotterdam where taken off and implanted into China.

You continue the journey through Western Europe of China and see places, that might belong to France, Netherlands or even UK.

You walk inside the yard and feel like you’ve been teleported to the city of Lviv in Western Ukraine.

Walk few more blocks and you’re in Manhattan! Look maaa, an Empire State Building!

The Dark Side

Don’t be fooled by those westernized images of Tianjin. It is just a few blocks away from the “usual China”.

High tech and low life in a single shot

Exploring the city from above: you see real estate boom inside some districts and poverty of neighboring ones.

Let’s go down again and have a short walk. We start on a wealthy avenue, they all look the same here: shopping malls and newly built high-rise office buildings (especially popular among financial sector).

Chinese wedding: 2 black cars arrive at shopping mall entrance, did a few confetti shots up in the air and went away, leaving all the glitters on the ground.

We’re entering “ghetto” just 2 blocks from the shopping mall and financial center.

Say hello to the punk dog!

This is how working class neighborhood looks like in Tianjin.

Unlike US or Canada, such neighborhoods are relatively safe in China. Even at night.

Dark alleys are safe too.

The thing I like about China is markets. It is not hard to find markets in Chinese cities, because many poor districts act as markets themselves.

Walking few more blocks and we arrive to the new McManson style housing estate.

And another business district which feels like Singapore meets London.

Full of copycat cars.

Chinese auto brands.

To my taste, those business districts look really good, but always miss some genuine feeling, you’re having on poorer districts nearby.

As most large cities in Asia, Tianjin feels much better at night, with its Blade Runner vibe.