Day 433-434 Newbies to Tianjin

On Friday, November 6th, we had our first snowfall of the
season.  It is so dry in Beijing (the Gobi Desert is just on the other
side of the mountains) that snow is a bit of a rarity here.  It
put it down for several hours that morning.  Besides the fact that
I HATE to be cold, I was more concerned about the weekend
trip I had planned the minute school let out.  I was taking a
group of teachers to Tianjin on the high speed train.  The
last thing I wanted was to be tromping around playing tour guide
in the freezing cold; I was still trying to get over a cold myself.

It took five cabs to get the whole lot of us to our
hotel, the Holiday Inn Riverside, which is right next
to the Tianjin Eye.  Seeing the excited expressions of
my colleagues at their first look of this beautiful city,
I knew that cold or not, it was going to be a FUN weekend.

With everyone checked into their rooms, (I mean, really,
can you beat that view of the river walk?!) we ventured
out in five more cabs for our late dinner reservations at
Pizza Bianca.  They were in for a treat :)

The wait staff took extra good care of us, bringing out all kinds
of tasty Italian treats for us to enjoy- at no charge!

One of our newbies, Bradley and his beautiful wife Moe.

Ganbei!  (Cheers in Mandarin :)

We had a great group of people along for the trip, newbies,
some returning teachers and several family members.

I love these two :)

After sleeping in and enjoying a leisurely breakfast that was 
included with our hotel room, we ventured out in to the cold.

It was cold and raining- the worst for me :(

Our first stop was the Dabei Buddhist Temple, which was
conveniently located right behind our hotel. 

It is a beautiful monastery, and it quite the deal, only 5rmb
to visit the grounds- that's about 85 cents.

There are marble miniature Buddha statues all
over the grounds, offering well wishes.

Mostly they are there to remind visitors to
speak in a whisper, as there are people
who are there to worship.

It was fun watching these folks trying to toss coins

into the tower for good luck- their aim was not so good!

It was a little on the chilly side...

Still, this Buddha was just chillin'

`

Beautiful

I am always in awe of the beautiful marble carvings, on
staircases, vases, monuments and statues. Such detail.

These two lovelies, Rici our Spanish teacher, and Jade
our Scottish lass who teaches PE.  I <3 them both.

Turn teachers loose on a 'field trip', and they get silly, too :)

As we left the temple, we walked through a market place
for some early Christmas shopping on our way to the Eye.

Carlos has an eye for photography.  Love this.

The 'warning label' for riding the Tianjin Eye- in Chinglish!
We all could benefit from the 'scenic area civilized tips', lol.

I am very blessed to work with some awesome teachers and
school counselors from all over the world.  All in all, Beijing
National Day School does a great job in hiring quality people :)

I wish the weather had cooperated more :/ It's a beautiful city.

At the top!

From the Eye, we headed up the river walk toward the
Chinese Culture Street for more street food and shopping.
There is a carved marble wall that tells a pictorial history of Tianjin.

There are five distinct bridges that cross the river in to various
neighborhoods and the CBD.  It is called Five Avenues.

Zach and San are the sons of two of our faculty.  It was fun
hanging with boys again; I miss my grandkids Ava & Eli.

We walked through the Ancient Culture Street
which is a good place for browsing all things
Chinese.  There is a small temple there
from the Qing dynasty, and it is typically
packed with tourists- not on this cold, rainy day.

As we exited the Gu Wenhua Jie, many loaded with packages
of local art ware, silks, kites and such, we passed by Xikai Church
which marks the French Concession area.  The church was built with
bricks from France and was completed in 1916. While it is an active
People's Catholic Church, it also is a war museum of sorts with
several monuments, and even a tank in the courtyard of the church.

We crossed another bridge, and entered the Italian concession.
In many ways, Tianjin looks like you could be in Europe, not China.

At the end of the bridge, we were greeted by
another Christian church. In fact, within viewing
distance there were four churches- in a largely
agnostic country- though some here practice Buddhism.

Next was the very fancy, very ornate Marco Polo bridge,
which again, looks like you are somewhere in Italy or France.
This marks the entry to both the Italian and German concession. 

When I reach the clock tower, I know there are brats
and beer in my near future- though I pass on the beer.

This is a beautiful (but crowded) area to sit in an outdoor cafe, enjoy
a glass of wine, and people watch in the spring and summer months.

We opted to eat indoors at my favorite German restaurant, Bavaria Brauhaus. 

Most of the group opted to cab it back to the hotel for a night
cap, but Damien and I decided to walk off dinner to see the
churches and river walk at night. It was cold, but no longer raining.

The river walk comes alive in the evenings with dinner cruises,
street performers, and people sending paper lanterns in the air
and lighting giant sparklers, like Ms. Rici :)

Soon it was time to head back to the train station for the
quick trip home.  I met three Chinese men who were all
carrying instrument cases.  I saw that they said Bach, so I
asked if they were trumpets.  Lo and behold, they were!
They became very excited when I told them their instruments
came from my hometown in Elkhart, Indiana.  Not one of
them played the trumpet. They received them as "corporate
gifts" from a business meeting they attended- strange gift.
They insisted I play something for them.  People, it's been
over 25 years since I've held a trumpet, but I still could run
the scales, and hit a high A. I missed the high C by two notes.
But man, I thought I was going to blow a gasket! It was
so much fun- and they of course had to have lots of pictures
and videos made with me while we waited for our train.

After spending the entire day touring in the cold outdoors,
it was a quiet ride home to Beijing....zzzzzzz......

Which took all of 30 minutes at 302km/hr!  I love
the high speed trains in China- it's a smooth ride and
oh so cheap- only $9.00USD each way from PEK to Tianjin.
No doubt, I'll be returning again soon :)

G'nite, y'all!