In our quest for Solar Eclipse '09, our first stop was Tianjin, China, a large port city about two hours from Beijing. We landed to incredibly smoggy, gray skies, where the 97 degree heat and 95% humidity had our clothes sticking to us in about 3 seconds flat. "Sticky" and "uncomfortable" don't begin to cover it. The gray haze that covered the city seemed to cover the entire countryside as well, and after seeing the giant industrial smokestacks along the way, we knew it was more than coastal fog. After driving the lonely road from Beijing to Tianjin, we arrived at the lovely Rennaissance Hotel in Tianjin.
The Rennaisance in central Tianjin is located across from a grand Concert Hall, and conveniently next to Starbucks and a luxury mall featuring Prada, Cartier and Gucci. From the front, the skyscraper building looks two-dimensional. We were in the part of town the guidebook said was frequented by foreigners searching for a little bit of home in a Subway sandwich and Starbucks half-caff latte. The lobby of the hotel featured a grand staircase on one side and a gorgeous mural of a modern rendition of the Great Wall opposite. It had an "East meets West" feeling, and I immediately felt underdressed and grubby standing there, wearing traveling clothes and needing a shower.
We were fortunate to be upgraded to a suite on the Club Floor, which meant free drinks and snacks, along with a very posh two-room suite overlooking the gray smoggy skies of Tianjin. We fought to stay awake long enough to have some snacks and soft drinks in the lounge, where three Chinese women were holed up with laptops and working furiously on some project or another. The staff was friendly and spoke English to us, which was a relief, since our Chinese is limited to “nihao” (“hello”) and “Xiexie” (thank you). We ate a few eggrolls and some custardy dessert of unknown origins, and went back to our luxurious suite.
We ordered up a light supper in our room, fought to stay awake, and then promptly crashed around 7:00 pm. Alex was given strict orders that if he were to awaken in the middle of the night, and we were still asleep, he could watch TV in the other room, with the door closed. He mumbled “ok” then fell asleep.
At 3:30 am, I woke up and realized there was no going back to sleep. I noticed a couple of beady little eyes staring up at me in the dark and said, “Hi, Alex.” We were all awake, with nothing to do for another 2 ½ hours, when the restaurant opened for breakfast. I made use of the time by sending text messages to my brothers in Texas and to my Twitter account. I was able to use my cell phone in Tianjin, but at $2.99/minute, I opted for texting instead of calling. Plus, I had no earthly idea what time it was in the US, so I thought I'd play it safe.
After breakfast, we caught a taxi to another part of town that Frank read had a famous shopping street, rebuilt after a major earthquake. It was pouring rain, and we borrowed an umbrella from the hotel to take along, but it barely covered Alex and me. Street vendors appeared out of nowhere selling cheap umbrellas, so we bought one. Most of the shops seemed to be closed, with the exception of Niketown, a Disney store, and some other sneaker stores that looked suspiciously like Foot Locker. Not exactly the exotic Chinese souvenirs we were looking for after traveling half-way around the world.
We went in search of toys (because toys made in China are so rare in the US) and decided to venture into a large, multi-story department store. The bottom floor of the department store held row after row of glistening gold jewelry cases, and numerous cases of exquisite jade. I looked at a few cases, and each time I approached, a young woman behind the counter would start to open the case. The jewelry was far from cheap. Most of it was well over $500 US, which seemed pretty exorbitant given that the average Chinese worker probably makes about $100 a month. That would probably account for the fact that there did not appear to be any other shoppers on this floor.
We finally found toys on the 8th floor, and Alex found a selection of airplanes and unknown action figures that were within his budget. He chose a set of plastic jet fighters, and we decided to give up on shopping. I had been hoping to find some silk purses or scarves like the ones I bought very cheaply at the Great Wall on our visit there in 2004, but this was not a tourist area, which was evident from the number of stares we got walking down the street from the locals.
Tianjin seemed to be a city of contrasts, evidenced by the architecture. A Tudor-style hotel was crammed next to an ornate rococo office building, next to a spare utilitarian housing unit. Some of the buildings looked like they belonged on a boulevard in Paris, while the adjacent building looked like an army barracks. Overall, the city looked like any other city in the world, quirky, alive, and humming with human activity.
I'm sure there are a thousand more things to do in Tianjin, but we were on a mission to catch the greatest solar eclipse of the century, so we were limited in our touring time. We found our way back to the hotel with the help of a far-sighted taxi driver who couldn't read the tiny print on our map, and had to ask a passerby for help. Next stop: Port of Tianjin and the Costa Classica ship.
