Tianjin 5th Avenue

Yor...why I don't have enough time one ler....


Before we start Forbidden City, I have gostan back to Tian Jin. Don't think I did it justice by putting a stark white airport photo. Might give the wrong impression on Tianjin. If not because of Air Asia rescheduling the flight we would have arrive at Tianjin early in the morning instead of late afternoon. Apparently morning is so foggy they can't land. So all morning arrivals were cancelled. I tell you my trip is full of hurdles. Don't get me started on Cousin Rain's factory. Haih, she almost ditched me because of that.

2 things we wanna do in Tian Jin. Visit 5th Avenue and eat the 'Dog also don't bother' pao. Sad to say we only manage to do one thing which is visit the 5th avenue. From the airport we took a bus to the railway station. For the benefit of my Bodek didi, I shall take time to explain how bloody big is the railway station. The bus from Airport will stop you at the South Gate of the railway station, there are constructions underway. After we bought train tickets to Beijing, we decided to hitch a taxi to 5th Avenue. After playing around in 5th avenue, took a taxi back and taxi dropped us off at the north gate which looks totally different from the south gate and we thought they were actually 2 railway stations. Luckily asked around and got the answer. By the way it's a 10 min walk from North to South exit. Add all the luggage you were lugging along, 15 mins or so.


5th Avenue in Tianjin is not a shopping street. It's a street full of European Building architecture left over from the olden times. Many are now unoccupied and sadly to say all of them are not maintained well so they look a bit like ghost house. As you walk along the street you can see the government put a notice on the fence stating ' Heritage etc etc... (dunno how to read)..'. Walking down the road made us remember the Europe Days. Too bad the 5th Avenue is really very very long, so long we can't see the end. So after aimlessly walking, we got hungry and decided to find a place to eat and guess what.... NO PLACE TO EAT.. no McDonalds, not even roadside Sausage stall. Oh MY GOD, we were so desperate we ask the police there, where got place to eat. Uncle Police must think we are 2 weirdos.. ha ha ha..
Anyway when we were walking aimlessly looking for food, bumped into this building. HOH, looks like they fly Gaudi in to do consulting for the design. In the age where there is no satellite, no internet, no computer no Fedex, no magazines - and yet you can clearly see the influence of Gaudi of Spain in this building.

There is an Art Gallery at the bottom and a Seafood Restaurant on top. Peculiar combination. It's like telling me there is a KFC at the Memorial Park where they put my dad's urn. Anyway we didn't go to that restaurant cause it looks expensive. Instead we went opposite to eat some dumplings. Photo with Rain.
Needless to say, the pao also no time to look for it. We actually made up in Beijing. Found that pao there but that is another story.

Ok next stop Forbidden City again..(Chairman Mao - Eh you skip me ah?, Kang Xi : Groan~~)