Five Great Avenues 

Introduction 

The Five Avenue Area is a rectangular region located in the Heping district. The area refers to the east of Xikang Road, north of Machang Street, south of Chengdu Street, north of Machang Street, Nanjing Road and west of Machang Street. The Five Great Avenue area has a total of 22 roads and they stretch for 17 kilometers. In addition to European style architecture in this region, there is a residential area which was occupied by the first small group of foreigners who opened up concessions right next to the office area, around the former Italian concession in the east of Marco Polo Plaza and near Jiefang Road. In the 20th century, this area was popular amongst wealthy individuals, political figures, businessmen and dignitaries because of its safety, convenience in terms of duty-free customs and transport leading to the rapid development of the Five Avenue Area to be an affluent area. There are approximately 41 Italian style, 89 British style, 4 in German style, 6 French style and 3 Spanish style buildings

Things to see and do on a visit 

Munan Avenue (Mu Nan Dao)

Stretching 2.08 kilometers long, Munan Avenue has 22 residences of former celebrities and 74 other buildings. On No. 2 is the former residence of Shun Dianying constructed in 1930.

Machang Avenue (Ma Chang Dao)

This is the oldest, widest and longest road among Five Great Avenues. The Building located on No. 121 in the Avenue used to be the former residence of the British Overseas Scholar, Da Wenshi. This residence is a typical Spanish Villa. 

There is also a Beijiang Museum which is one of the earliest museums in China built in 1922 adopting the Roman architectural style. The Tianjin Institute of Commerce and Industry, currently named Tianjin Foreign Studies University is also on this avenue and was constructed in 1921 using the French Romanesque architectural style.

Chengdu Avenue

The avenue occupies 24 meters and is the widest amongst the other avenues in the Five Great Avenues. No. 14 is a cubism villa incorporating sculptures and lines. On No. 93 is a British style building and on No. 60 is occupied by a modern yet simple building. 

Dali Avenue (Da Li Dao)

On Dali Avenue are the former residences of Cai Chengxun with the No.3 Building being the main building taking a French Romanesque appearance adopting the use of Chinese wood carvings for its interior decoration. On No.5 the building is a typical Chinese courtyard decorated using wood, sliding paper doors, stones and bricks. 

Chongqing Avenue

This Avenue houses building with both western and Chinese architecture. On No. 55 the building is a mansion with a western-styled outer eave and a Chinese patio. The East of the courtyard is home to a Chinese style garden with stone caves, rockeries and hexagonal pavilions. 

Changde Avenue

This is the shortest avenue at the Five Great Avenues with a length of 1,219 meters. The avenue has numerous western-style villas. 

Horse-drawn, bikes and Rickshaws

Horse-drawn carts are the best ways to get visitors who wish to explore the area. The rides give an introduction to exotic architecture and take visitors back in time at the former residences. 

Porcelain House (China House)

Introduction 

The Porcelain House is situated on Chifeng Road in Heping District at the old French Concession. It was first constructed in the 1920’s covering an area of 4,200 square meters. The building is constructed using the French architectural style embellished by porcelain. It is colorful and its doors, handrails, windows, roofs, ceilings, eaves and pillars are all decorated in chinawares. The building’s architectural design originates from France with an Italian interior style corridor. The house was inhabited by a contemporary Chinese diplomat Huang Rongliang and in September 2002 it was bought for a whopping price of 30 million yuan by Zhang Lianzhi who was a successful businessman, artist and collector. He spent over 20 years collecting the materials he needed and another five years to finish decorating.

After which he converted the house into a porcelain building to spread chinaware culture opening it to the public on September 3rd in 2007 and ever since then it has become a landmark in Tianjin. On September 23rd in 2010 the house was mentioned as one of fifteen other museums with distinctive designs by the US Huffington Post in the league of the Denver Art Museum in Colorado and the Louvre Museum in France. 

Things to see and do on a visit 

Porcelain Decorations

Visitors can see how the house has been decorated with up to 700 million porcelain pieces, 400 white marble sculptures, 4,000 ancient china vases and 40 tons of crystal and agate. The porcelain pieces originated from different historical periods. For instance, the tri-colored glazed pottery is from the Tang Dynasty, celadon from the Jin Dynasty (265-420), the blue and white china in the Yuan and Ming Dynasty, Jun china and Longquan celadon in the Song Dynasty and the rose china in the Qing Dynasty. All the decorations are cemented and glued and have even become part of the building. These decorations costed up to 2 billion Chinese Yuan. The house’s outside drainpipes are also embellished in cat shaped porcelain pillows and crystals. 

The internal courtyard wall is covered with at least 3,000 porcelain vases and is referred to as the Wall of Wellness decorated with over 600 ancient Chinese porcelain vases. While the exterior wall is covered with four China dragons representing the power of ancient China. Every dragon measures at least 200 meters in length and is created from a sequence of thousands of porcelain pieces. 

The house still maintains hundreds of precious furniture from the Ming and Qing Dynasty with up to 200 calligraphies and paintings some from abroad and others produced locally including masterpieces of great Chinese great masters like Qi Baishi, Zhang Xuan and Xu Beihong. On the other hand, works of foreign masters Picasso and masters Van Gogh can also be seen by visitors. 

The roof of the building is covered in a gigantic dragon adorned by chinaware of a length of 768 meters and a width of 0.8 meters. 

Learn traditions 

Visitors can also see the rich essence of Chinese culture blended in traditional elements in the house. For instance, the use of white marble sculptures and rock images represent good luck and opportunities, the decoration of outside walls with vases symbolizes safety and peace and the decorations by Phoenixes and dragons represents prosperity and auspice. 

Italian Style Street

Introduction 

Located on Marco Polo Square the street is one of the eight concessions built in Tianjin in the early 20th century. The concession lasted between 1901-1947. In June 7, 1902, Mr. Tong Zhaoyi with Tianjin Customs and a new Italian Minister signed the "Articles of Tianjin Italian National Concession Contract" scoped to be the Italian Concession area in Tianjin. In 1946 the construction of the Italian concession resumed by the local government. In 2002 the Tianjin Municipal Government and the Tianjin Haihe Construction Development company set up protective development to the original concession area and gave its current name which is the "Italian Style Street". In 2005, renovations of the street were completed and it was opened to the public in 2008.

The location of the street is between where the Tianjin Russia Concession and Tianjin Australia Concession. This street is a tourist resort with what used to be known as the only concession outside of Italy.  The street is formed by major streets in Tianjin including Boai road, Wujing road, Jianguo road and Shenguo road in addition to a few other streets carrying over 200 years old Italian buildings. The design of the street looks like a chess board with both sides of the street lined with street lights and green trees in conjunction with very well preserved fences.

Major attractions and activities to do on a visit

Former residences 

The town offers a plethora of activities ranging from westernized restaurants, bars, boutique shops, and outdoor bazaars. Visitors can also see the renowned Marco Polo Square and former residences of Chinese celebrities like Cao Yu, the president of the warlord era, Liang Qichao, Feng Guofan, Hua Shikui and the Italian military camp. 

Eat

The street is also the only place where tourists get to taste the most original Italian Pizza, Pasta, noodles and a collection of many other Italian snacks. In addition to this, there are also French and German restaurants transporting visitors all the way to Europe. While dining, visitors can also enjoy live Italian performances. 

Shop

This street wouldn’t be complete without selling authentic Italian handicrafts and clothes where visitors can buy souvenirs among a collection of other goodies. At night the buildings get lit up and the shops become lively adding even more flavor to the area with a 24 hour economy of bars, coffee shops and restaurants. 

Ancient Cultural Street

Introduction 

The Ancient Cultural Street is located in the Nankai District of Tianjin Municipality and was initially opened in 1986. It is on the west bank of Haihe River with the Temple of the Queen of Heaven also known as Tianhou Palace on its geographical center. The Ancient Cultural Street begins from Gongbei Avenue towards the north and ends at Gongnan Avenue towards the south stretching 687 meters long with a width of 5 meters. The street is a national 5A class touring site and was originally a business street but tourists swam in the area attracted by its unique architectural styles, classic cultural features, folk crafts and tasty local snacks making it a major tourist spot. 

Things to see and do on a visit

Ancient architecture

The Ancient Culture Street occupies a total area of 2.2 million square meters full of ancient buildings in every corner. All the buildings in the street are painted with green walls and have red pillars decorated with various forms of sliding paper doors, railings, windows, roof wing angles coupled with lanterns, plaque, banners and couplets. Many buildings at the street are also built with blue bricks and their windows and doors with very colorful paintings decorating them. The paintings vary from stories of legends, flowers, birds and historical figures. Some of the paintings clearly take visitors back in time with their descriptive nature like the Dream of a Red Mansion (one the four most classic novels in China) and Song of Eternal Sorrow; a story about Empress Yang Kwei Fei in the Tang Dynasty (618-907). These paintings are up to 1500 pieces of in addition to carvings that add a classical hint into the street.

Yuhuang Pavilion 

The oldest structure on the street is the Yuhuang Pavilion that was constructed during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). From the top most floor of the of the two floor pavilion, visitors can get a bird's eye view of the whole street. 

Tong Qingli

Tong Qingli is also another ancient building in the street that used to be a residential house that is situated at the eastern side of the street. It was built in 1913 as the largest architectural edifice that combines both eastern and western architectural elements.

Tianhou Palace

The Tianhou Palace is located in the middle section of Ancient Culture Street paying tribute to the Goddess of the sea. The temple was constructed in 1326 AD to defend the heavenly Goddess and with the aim of protecting Tianjin's mariners and the complete ocean population. The main building of the palace is the Main Hall constructed on a high and large pedestal made from wood just like the buildings from the mid and late Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). The palace is one of the three other major Tianhou palaces in China and one of the oldest extant Tianhou palaces.

Yuhuangge Taoist Temple

The Yuhuangge Taoist Temple was once the most famous building in the Hai River Triple Junction. It is the largest Taoist Temple with more than 600 years of history. 

Temple of the Queen of Heaven

Located at the center of the Ancient Cultural Street is the Temple of the Queen of Heaven that was constructed in 1326 as one of three other Mazu Temples in the world  (the other two are Beigang Chaotian Temple on Taiwan Island and Fujian Mazu Temple). This Temple is now the Folk custom Museum of Tianjin and displays many cultural relics and folk crafts. 

Antiques

The Ancient Street generally specializes in different categories of goods; There are antiques, furniture, relics, old books, jewelry and paintings. There are also folk traditional commodities like Yangliuqing New Year Paintings worth 300 years of history, Zhang’s colorful clay figurines, Liu’s engraved bricks, Suzhou’s embroidery, Wei’s Kite and Jingdezhen’s porcelains. 

Shop

There are uncountable shops on the street selling the most genuine and affordable merchandise. some sell stationery materials such as papers, calligraphy pens and paper, ink slabs, writing brushes, painting brushes and ink sticks. 

There are calligraphy and painting brushes of Four Treasures and Spring Church, cultural antiques of Sui Man Chai and cloisonne, jade carvings, double-sided embroidery and art ceramics. Furthermore, there are both western and Chinese music instruments.

For visitors interested in handmade crafts, there are dozens of famous artists and craftsmen selling their products at the Niren Zhang Painted Sculptures store and the Yang Liuqing New Year Paintings. Visitors can also shop for souvenirs at Chinese curios selling cloisonné, jade items and potteries. 

Eat

At the street visitors can taste local snacks such as roasted sweet potatoes, different desserts, pastry, Erduoyan (the Ear hole cake) Fried Glutinous Cakes, candied gourd, Goubuli Steamed Dumplings and tea soup made by a big teapot.

Huanghui Fai

Visitors who happen to visit the Ancient Cultural Street on March 23rd of every lunar calendar can experience the Huanghui Fair set to display Chinese folk customs such as lion dances, stilt walking, land boat and dragon lantern. 

Leisure 

In front of Tianhou Palace visitors can see locally produced drama shows and live performances for free in an open air theater.