“If people are curious about the history of Mingand Qing Dynasty, they should look at Beijing.If they want to know more about modern China,they could not afford to miss the chanceof touring Tianjin.’” For Western tourists, theywill gain a sense of closeness when they cometo Tianjin. This city is one of the first cities thatgot in touch with Western civilizations, andthere are numerous remains of architecturesand cultural relics of that age.

In recent years, Tianjin Municipal Governmenthas begun to launch the core tourism brandof “Look at Tianjin if you want to know aboutmodern China”. The city focus on establishingtwelve tourism sections or projects, so asto establish a symbol landscape and tourismcomplex that can reflect the important historicalevents of Tianjin politics, economy, finance,culture, architecture and international intercourse,with Tianjin modern history and cultureas venation.

According to the Tianjin Tourism Bureau, thetwelve tourism projects have so far made greatprogress in terms of planning and designing,attracting investment, land management andproject implementation. These projects havetaken initial dimension, as following:

The Vicissitude of Dagu. The warships of Britishand French allied army invading China wasonce bombarded here in Dagu more than 100years ago. It is the place where modern historyand cultures intensely intersected. It is theplace where the Dagu Emplacement lies, whichenjoys the reputation of ‘Sea Gate of AncientFortress’. It is the place where Tide Sound Templewas built in Yongle Reign of Ming Dynasty.

The Army Training Field of South Tianjin WayStation. It is the cradle of modern army andnew armies are trained here. Yuan Shikai hadtrained his army here. It mainly includes TrainingArmy Field Wall, Wude Palace, Barracks,Moat, Marketing Street, Jiu Dachu, etc..

Five-Avenue Area. Located in the Five-Avenuearea in the downtown area, it boasts a largenumber of architectures with historical stylesand features and former residences of famouspeople in modern history. According to incompletestatistics, two presidents of Republic ofChina and seven Premiers and acting Premiersof State affairs live here in 1920’s and 1930’s. Itis a miniature of modern history of China.

The Italian-Style Area. Located in the Italianstyle district to the north bank of Haihe River,it was once the center of Italian concession district.It is the only biggest architecture complexof Italian historical style and feature in China aswell as in Asia.

The Former Residence of Henry Pu Yi, the lastemperor of Qing Dynasty. Quietness Garden’soriginal name is Qian (Heaven) Garden and wasbuilt in 1921. Henry Pu Yi once lived here afterhe was dislodged from the Forbidden City andrenamed it Quietness Garden. Now it has beenspruced up.

Ancient City of Tianjin Style — ancient city’sfolk-customs area. The Ancient City of TianjinStyle Section has drum-tower business streetand ancient culture street as its core, and it isthe classical scenery area which displays thefolk-customs of the ancient Tianjin City. Thereis still the Ancient Culture Street TourismDistrict (Jinmen Native Place), one of the firstNational Five Grade Tourist Scenic Spots.Sight-Seeing Area of Three Mouths of River. Itexhibits the historical style and features of thebirthplace of Tianjin City and industrial historyand water transportation culture.

Ancient-Style Town of Yangliuqing Area. Basedon resources of the unique folks, architecturesof Ming and Qing Dynasties and folk culturesof new-year-paintings of Yangliuqing, it has developedYangliuqing Stone House Yard of QingDynasty residents, Yangliuqing Spring FestivalPaint Gallery, Streets of Ming and Qing Dynastystyle, Sight of Canal, Wenchang Pavilion,Chongwen College.

Zhigu Cultural Sight-Seeing Area. This place hasbeen the early birthplace of Tianjin as well as theproving ground of Westernization Movement.

Fenghua Road Germany-Style Area. Located inthe triangular area formed by South LiberationRoad of Hexi District, Qiongzhou Road andWenzhou Road, it abounds with architecturesof Germany style.

Central Park French-Style Area. Features ofArchitectures of French styles and zone bitdominate this place. Its center is a garden of 1.4acres, separated by ring roads and with architecturesof French styles standing tall and uprightaround it. There are 79 buildings subjectto cultural relics’ protection of various levels.

North Liberation Road Financial Street. It isintended to be built into a historical leisuretourism district with modern, financial and architectureculture as features and architecturesof financial features in North Liberation Roadas background.