Geographic Location Located at latitude 38°34'N-40°15'N and longitude 116°43'E-118°4'E, Tianjin belongs to the 8th eastern international time zone. At the center of the Bohai Sea Economic Circle along the west coast of the Pacific Ocean, Tianjin backs onto North China, Northwest China and Northeast China and faces Northeast Asia, and it is only 120 km away from Beijing, capital of China. Thanks to such a favorable location, Tianjin enjoys great advantages and provides a channel for over a dozen provinces and cities in the north of China to communicate with foreign friends. Tianjin is also the largest port city in the north.

History Referred to as "Jin" for short in Chinese, Tianjin (meaning "port for the emperor") is widely known as "Jin'gu", "Jinmen", etc. The history of Tianjin dates back to the digging of the Grand Canal in Sui Dynasty. The present Sancha Hekou near Jin'gang Bridge used to be the confluence of the South Canal and the North Canal. And it is from this place that Tianjin has expanded and developed. After the middle period of Tang Dynasty, Tianjin developed into a ferry terminal for the transportation of grain and silk from the south to the north. In Jin and Yuan Dynasties, Tianjin became a town of great military significance as well as a hub for the water transportation of grains. In 1400, the second year of Jianwen Reign in Ming Dynasty, Zhu Di led his army past Zhigu and across the Yellow River to seize state power. Shortly after the emperor's reign was changed into Yongle in 1403, the city won the name "Tianjin". As a town of great military significance, Tianjin was officially established as a city in 1404, the second year of Yongle Reign. In 1405 and 1406, the Left and Right cities of Tianjin were established. In 1652, the three cities were united into one-Tianjin Wei (city). In the year 2004, Tianjin officially celebrated its 600th anniversary as a city.

After Tianjin became a treaty port in 1860, many western powers rushed to establish their own concessions in Tianjin. For this reason, Tianjin was among the first few cities in North China to open up and it became a base for the Westernization Movement. Besides, Tianjin also took the lead in China in military modernization, the construction of railroads, telegraph, telephone, post, mining, modern education and legal systems. At that time, Tianjin was the second largest industrial and commercial city in China and the largest financial and trade center in the north.

Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, as a municipality directly under the central government, Tianjin has undergone great development in both economic construction and social undertakings. Thanks to the achievements, Tianjin has strengthened its position in China as a comprehensive industrial base and commercial and trade center. Since the adoption of the policy to reform and open to the outside world, Tianjin has demonstrated unique advantages as a port city and furthered its contacts with foreign friends. In the new century, with high spirits and great passions, Tianjin people are striving to construct Tianjin into a modern international port city as well as an economic center in North China.

Administrative Division & Population As one of the four special municipalities directly under the central government of China, Tianjin has jurisdiction over 18 districts and countries. It has 15 districts(Heping, Hedong, Hexi, Nankai, Hebei, Hongqiao, Tanggu, Hangu, Dagang, Dongli, Xiqing, Jinnan, Beichen, Wuqing and Baodi)and 3 counties( Ninghe, Jinghai and Jixian). The total permanent population of Tianjin in 2004 was 10.2367 million, and the total registered population was 9.3255 million, including 7.5878 million living in the districts under city administration, and 1.6818 million the countries under city administration.

Area and Climate The total area of the city is 11,900 km\+2, 189 km long from south to north and 117 km wide from east to west. The city proper covers an area of 7,418 km\+2, and the rural area covers 4,502 km\+2 . The circumference of the whole city is about 900 km, including a coastline of 152.8 km and a land line of over 700 km.

Located in the warm temperate zone, Tianjin has sub-humid continental monsoon climate. The main feature of the climate is the four seasons are clearly cut, which results in a great difference in temperature and a wide variety of sceneries throughout the year. The average temperature in a year is 11.1℃-12.5℃.January is the coldest month, with the average temperature of lower than 1.7℃ below zero, July is the hottest month, with the average temperature of higher than 26℃, the temperature between them is about 30-32℃. Average relative humidity is between 55% and 65%, and the frost-free period lasts about 200 days. On the average, the annual precipitation is about 550 mm-680 mm, 75% of which is concentrated in June, July and August. The sunshine time in the city is relatively long. Hours of sunshine are between 2600-3000 hours, with the longest hours in may. average wind speed is 2-5 m/sec.

Natural Resources Tianjin enjoys a rich supply of natural resources, which is quite rare in large cities both at home and abroad. First of all, Tianjin has abundant oil and gas resources. Its Bohai and Dagang Oil Fields are key state oil and gas projects, turning out 13,000,000 tons of crude oil and 850,000,000 m\+3 of natural gas per year. Secondly, with its coastline stretching 150 kilometers, Tianjin has inexhaustible sea salt resources and takes pride in its Changlu Salt Field. With an annual output of 2,300,000 tons of salt (10% of the total sea salt output in China), Changlu Salt Field is the most famous sea salt production base in China. Thirdly, Tianjin possesses rich metal and nonmetal mineral resources. The major metal minerals include jimboite, manganese, gold, wolfram, molybdenum, copper, zinc, iron, etc. Not only are the manganese and boron minerals first discovered in China, but they are rare even in the world. The nonmetal minerals here -cement rock, barytes, stromatolith, marble, natural rock, purple sand porcelain clay, maifan stone, etc. -are of considerable mining values. Fourthly, plentiful geothermal resources are available in Tianjin. The underground warm water temperature ranges from 30℃ to 90℃ and, in addition to its excellent quality, the warm water is deposited at a shallow position. In ten areas with geothermal resources worth further prospecting and tapping, the total hot water reserve amounts to 110.36 billion m\+3. This is the largest medium and low-temperature geothermal field in China. Fifthly, in Tianjin, 200 km\+2 of wasteland and shallows have great potentials for development. Because most of such land is located along the downstream of the Haihe River, where transportation is convenient, it is possible to develop the land at low cost. Such favorable conditions are not available in other large cities in China.

Places of Historic Interest and Human Perspective In Tianjin, there are some places of historic interest and scenic beauty had been unearthed, of which, 37 have been in major preservation by the state and the local government. It has over one thousand years history since the Temple of Dule was built in Sui Dynasty with a large scale and the oldest-existing wooden structures in Jixian; more than 1,000 peculiarly-shaped forts with ancientry are in the 41-kilometer-long Great Wall at Jixian county's Huangyaguan, looking ridgy, grand and marvellous, which are known as the key to the lock in northern part of Jixian county. Panshan Mountain is reputed to be grand and be "the First Mountain East of Beijing", with its peaks rising higher and more beautiful than another. Local buildings have been integrated with rivers and mountains. The Tianjin-based historic interest and scenic beauty also comprise Tianhou Temple, the Temple of Confucious, Dabei Buddhistic Monastery, the Grand Mosque, Tianzun pavilion, Dagu forts, Wanghailou Church, Guangdong Guild Hall, Zhou Enlai Memorial Hall where exhibits his revolutionary activities he had gone in for when he was in days of his youth.

Urban Construction The buildings in Tianjin have a lot of particular features, there are not only beautiful and simple ancient buildings, but also many new and nice west style buildings. People usually call these west style buildings as "Foreign-style Buildings", thousands of these foreign-style buildings are mainly located along five major roads of Tianjin (Chengdu Dao, Chongqing Dao, Munan Dao, Dali Dao and Changde Dao). Tianjin has kept so many ancient and foreign buildings in one city, which is uncommon to other cities in china or even in the world, so tianjin has been considered as "Multi-country Architectural Museum".

Folk Arts Tianjin is famous for its 4 folk arts: the painted clay figures by"Clay-Sculptor Zhang" as known well to all parts of China and of the world; "New Year" pictures produced in the town of Yangliuqing with a long history, that find favour in foreign friends' eyes; Wei-made kites popular so much to win a gold medal at the Panama International Fair in 1914; the carved bricks by"Brick-Carver Liu" being uniquely of Tianjin's folk arts put into use of buildings-related decorations in China.

Food Culture In Tianjin, there are over 1,000- variety dishes being fresh,smooth and soft, and saltish with a rich taste, in more than 300-year history, which are prepared by local cuisines, from local perfect raw materials for cooking, together with good flavouring. The traditional dishes have included the fried and stewed carps, meat braised together with carps, deep fried and sauteed birds,"tiger skin"pork elbow, etc. And the excellent dishes have shark's fins braised and brown sauce, sauted shrimps, cooked prawns, shark's fins with crab roe, shredded chicken and mushroom, braised scallops, braised abalone, sourish purple crab paste. In addition, 8-style cookeries as accepted generally by all Chinese have been made in Tianjin, in spite of their being originally from respectively Shandong, Suzhou, Sichuan, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Hunan, Fujian and Anhui, and also it has over 90 varieties of specially-flavoured and ordinary dishes, 45 varieties of cold dishes and over 90 snacks with the local flavor. In the case of Tianjin flavour, besides,3 "second-to-none" foods are well-known to parts of China and foreign countries for: Goubuli Baozi, Erduoyan Zhagao, Guifaxiang Mahua. Still,other locally-known snacks include: Zhang's Guoren, Cao-cooked donkey meat, Dafulai Guobacai,ShiTouMenKan Vegetable Baozi,Zhilanzhai Gaogan, Tiebobo Aoxiaoyu.However, Tianjin people are accustomed to breakfasting necessarily on Dabing, Bangchui Guozi, bean curd with flavorings,Guoba Cai, soya-bean milk,Huntun,Jianbing Guozi.

Industrial Structure Tianjin is the largest opening coastal city of North China and the economic center of the Bohai Coastal Region. Its gross domestic product (GDP) was 293.188 billion yuan in 2004, of which, the primary industry reached 10.501 billion yuan of the value-added, its share in GDP was 3.6 percent; the value-added of secondary industry was 156.016 billion yuan, its share in GDP was 53.2 percent; the value-added of the tertiary industry was 126.671 billion yuan, its share in GDP was 43.2 percent. The per capita GDP was 31.550 yuan in 2004.
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