Tour of Tianjin
大家好,
It is Matilde and Leah back to tell you about more adventures!
This month, 天津师范大学 has had the honour of hosting the 23rd 汉语桥 (Chinese Bridge Competition), which consists in hosting a series of foreign participants who will sing, dance and entertain everyone with a glorious exhibition of multiple cultures. Through this event, us students were able to not only witness the show in the grand hall, but also to experience other typical Chinese activities such as printing, notebook lacing, traditional Chinese makeup, jewellery and so much more! Furthermore, we had the opportunity to join the welcome and leaving party, as well as watch the performances throughout the two weeks and make even more international friends! 第23届“汉语桥”世界大学生中文比赛 汉语桥 学汉语 外国人 留学生 老外 汉语
Having been in 天津 longer, we are now becoming more comfortable and familiar with the transportation available to us, from bicycles and mopeds around campus, to the subway, buses and trains that take us as far as 北京. We have learnt how to take leave in the weekends to explore places around us, both within and outside of our city, to really get a feel for life in China.
We have navigated the metro to get to the train station (天津站) and took the bullet train from 天津 to 北京. This took 40 mins and had high speeds of 306mph. it was extremely impressive and daunting to watch the trains as they were flying past us on the platform!
Once in 北京we made our way to the temple of heaven (天坛公园) which had beautiful gardens and ancient structures. Our favourite part of the trip was when a young boy got so happy to see our friend Zach’s ginger hair that he cried, they even took a selfie together! We have included a photo with the same boy but unfortunately he has the selfie. There were also lots of people wearing traditional Chinese clothing, which added to the whole experience and atmosphere.
Close to the 天津站, there is also 海河 river, which we had the opportunity to visit and make a video about for our Friday class, specifically concentrating on the many bridges and surroundings of the river. We had a wonderful night out looking at the different designs, light displays and stalls along the riverside, although nothing beats finding the biggest rubber duck we’ve ever see!
Close to 海河 river there is also the 天津 eye which is breathtaking, but made even more so by the LED lights which reflected on the water at dusk. We got street food from the night market and enjoyed taking in the view and people watching.
China really doesn’t do half-way when it comes to shopping centres. Both on metro line 3 is TianTa and HePingLu, the largest being HePing with 9 floors. It is the biggest shopping centre I have ever been in, it has lots of different styles of clothing, food and gaming shops. We have returned there for its excellent sushi restaurant multiple times, it is just so good!