Eating out

Every Westerners’ favourite Chinese restaurant seems to be Yue Weixian. This is a charming mix of styles and experiences. On the outside, it looks like a Western house (if a rather overdecorative one). Inside, it looks more like a museum than a restaurant – except that it is bustling with attentive staff. It is a honeycomb of small rooms, all graced with fascinating antiques and artefacts. It serves wonderful Chinese food at reasonable prices.
Add: 283 Hebei Road
Tel: 22-23146666
Fax: 22-23309930
Email:ywx@ywxgroup.com

As with most Chinese cities, there are lots of restaurants. Because of the heavy bias towards Japanese and Korean investment, naturally there are many restaurants to cater for their ex-pats. A good Japanese chain is Lianwa Jia. They have restaurants in the Dickson Hotel, the International Building and in TEDA (Tianjin’s development zone). The food is very reasonably priced.
Addresses:
1/F Dickson Hotel (not to be confused with the other Japanese restaurant which is literally next door and looks smarter).
18 Binshui Road
Hexi District
Tianjin
Tel: 22-2813 0537

B1 International Building
75 Nanjing Road
Heping
Tianjin
Tel: 22-2313 1366

TEDA Branch
1/F Youyi Shopping Centre
19 Huanghai Road
TEDA

Should you feel in the need of some Western food, you can eat at the Cheng Gui Restaurant (next door to the Yue Weixian). Here you can have a strange mixture of styles from Russian Borscht to potato salad and possibly the best chips in China! The food is a little weird but, don’t be put off. The lamb chops in orange sauce comes highly recommended – even though the strange sauce was rather off-putting. It is a little like eating in someone’s front parlour circa 1920-1960.
Add: 287 Hebei road
Tel: 22-2330 1777
Fax: 22-2331 1702

Good-quality Shanghainese food is available at Garden Villa. This is a small restaurant, again, in a Western style house with a pretty courtyard garden which is used for dining in the summer.
Add: 117 Kunming Road
Tel: 22-2331 1117/2313 9888

Thai food is becoming popular. Try the Golden Elephant almost opposite MacDonald’s.
Add: 78 Guangdong Road
Tel: 22-2328 7801

Bars and Nightlife

Most of the Western hotels have the usual Filipino band and some have discos. Outside the hotels, the choice is growing.

Cosy Café & Bar
Has live bands some nights and a beer garden. Also serves food.
Add: 68 Changde Road
Heping District
Tel: 22-23126616/23126659

Tianjin has a bar street (Youyi Road) and, most of the bars are located here. If you want a cocktail, you might want to go to Broadies Tavern (currently the only bar run by a Westerner). Tel: 8837 0933.
Bar Street, Youyi Road (opposite the Friendship Store).

There is a sports bar called the Upper Deck which has a large screen showing sports all day and evening. It also has a games room.
Add: 107 Meijiang Street
Hexi District
Tel: 22-8836 9177
Fax: 22-8836 9077

There are also coffee bars – seven Starbucks at the latest count.

Arts & Culture

"Scenic Spots" Which are the best places to visit, for a tourist?

Because Tianjin was a treaty port, it still has a European air about it. One of the most interesting things to do is to wander around the district called the ‘Five Avenues’. This is the area of the old British and French concessions.
At no. 317 Hebei Road (formerly Wellington Road) there is the Tianjin Museum of Modern History, a private collection of memorabilia from the time of the nine European concessions. Get a map of the district and go in search of the British Club, a French church and a hotel where many famous Westerners stayed.

Get outside the city and you can find Yellow Cliff Pass (one of the least busy parts of the Great Wall) or Pan Mountain, just two hours away by car.

One of the most interesting historic spots is Yang Liuqing. It is the preserved home of a wealthy merchant official of the 19th century. It is an intricate puzzle of courtyards, drawing rooms, dining rooms and bedrooms. It even has its own school and theatre. It is also where the famous Chinese New Year paintings are produced.

Yang Liuqing Museum
Add: 47 Guyi Street
Yang Liuqing
Xiqing District
Tel: 22-2739 1617

If you are a keen golfer, Tianjin and TEDA (Tianjin’s major development zone) have around 10 Golf courses between them. The best is the Warner International Golf club at TEDA. The Clubhouse has accommodation, if you are staying over a weekend.
Add: 1 Nanhai Road,
TEDA
Tel: 22-2532 6009.

Shopping

For food and daily goods there are plenty of supermarkets in Tianjin: Carrefour, Homeworld and Hualian.

For fashions and cosmetics the Friendship Store is a very smart department store (Youyi Road). There is also a branch of the Friendship store in TEDA.

For tourist items one should try Ancient Culture Street. It is anything but ancient, being newly built, but it has been constructed to look like an old Qing dynasty street (much like Liu Lichang in Beijing).

On Sundays there is an old antique market near the West bank of the Haihe River in heping District.