Last year, against all odds and expectations, the Italian Culture Area managed to become a hit destination with tourists and locals alike. Continuing on that success, it was recently announced that Tianjin will be rebuilding several other locations around the city. Of those, the German Culture Street is probably the furthest along. The main area is nearly finished, and is also surrounded by a number of other European, colonial style buildings, (which, mostly, have not yet been restored). Today we took a little walk in the area to see how things were coming along. Photos from the main area are included here. To view the full gallery, click on the external link above.

More details of the planned development of a "British customs" area have been revealed. In total, over 5 billion yuan will be spent on new buildings and renovations of colonial era structures in the area centered around Tai'an Dao.

Yesterday's South China Morning Post featured a front page story criticizing China's high-speed rail ambitions as not cost-effective. In particular, they highlighted the Tianjin-Beijing railway for not meeting performance targets.