Methods of Transportation Buses Tianjin's bus system has been expanding rapidly in recent years as cycling has declined. There is an extensive network and good frequency, but despite massive investment, it is still a fairly uncomfortable experience, at least during peak times. Most buses cost 1.5 yuan, though there are some air-conditioned ones that cost 2 yuan. The cost should be displayed on the front window of the bus. You put the money in the slot at the side of the driver. No ticket is given, and you can't get change from the driver. A stored value card can be purchased for use on the buses and subway.
Subway (Di4tie3 地铁):
Tianjin is currently in the process of building an extensive subway network. At the moment, the only line open is Line One, which re-opened in 2006 after five years of extensive remodeling and expansion, and which runs from the northwest section of the city to the southeast. The stations are listed in our Google Tianjin directory, and can also be viewed at this address:
http://www.johomaps.com/as/china/tianjin/tianjinmetro.html
The trains are all comfortable and modern, and run about every 5-10 minutes from 6:00am to 10:00 pm, (although this time is subject to change). The cost of riding the train is determined by the distance you ride the train, and can vary from 2 to 5 yuan. The following is a list of subway stops, starting in the Northwest and moving Southeast:
Liu Yuan Subway Stop, (liu2yuan3 di4tie3 zhan4 刘园地铁站).
Xihengdi Subway Stop (xi1heng2di1 di4tie3 zhan4 西横堤地铁站).
Guojiu Chang Subway Station (Guo2jiu3 chang3 di4tie3 zhan4 果酒厂地铁站).
Benxi Lu Subway Stop (Ben3xi1 Lu4 di4tie3 zhan4 本溪路地铁站).
Qinjian Dao Subway Stop, (Qin2jian3 Dao4 Di4tie3 Zhan4 勤俭道地铁站).
Honghuli Subway Stop (hong2hu2li3 di4tie3 zhan4 洪湖里地铁站).
Tianjin West Train Station Subway Stop, (Tian1jin1 Xi1 Zhan4 Di4tie3 Zhan4 天津西站地铁站).
Xibei Jiao Subway Stop (xi1bei3 jiao2 di4tie3 zhan4 西北角地铁站).
Xi Nan Jiao Subway Stop, (xi1nan2 jiao2 di4tie3 zhan4 西南角地铁站).
Er Wei Lu Subway Stop, (er4wei3 lu4 di4tie3 zhan4 二纬路地铁站).
Haiguangsi Subway Stop, (Hai3guang2si4 Di4tie3 Zhan1 海光寺地铁站).
Anshan Dao Subway Stop (An1Shan1 Dao4 di4tie3 zhan4 鞍山道地铁站).
Yingkou Dao Subway Stop (Ying2kou3 Dao4 Di4tie3 Zhan4 营口道地铁站)
Xiaobailou Subway Stop (xiao3bai2lou2 di4tie3 zhan4 小白楼地铁站).
Xiawafang Subway Stop, (Xia4Wa2Fang1 Di4tie3 Zhan4 下瓦房地铁站).
Nanlou Subway Stop, (nan2lou2 di4tie3 zhan4, 南楼地铁站).
Tucheng Subway Stop, (图乘地铁站)
Chentangzhuang Subway Stop (陈唐庄地铁站).
Fuxingmen Subway Stop (复兴门地铁站).
Hua Shan Li Subway Stop, (华山里地铁站).
Tianjin University of Finance and Economics, (天津财经大学地铁站).
Shuanglin Subway Stop, (双林地铁站).
Once you are at the subway stop, buying a ticket is very easy. Automated, touch screen computers dispense your tickets. There is an English menu option, and you simply touch the screen on the station you want to go to, then put in your money, (cash and coins are both accepted). The machine then spits out a token and any change you may have left over out at the bottom, and you flash that token near a black and white target on the turnstiles to enter the station to get in. To get out, you put the token in a little slot on your way out. Pretty simple.
Subway lines 2 and 3 are currently under construction, and will open in late 2010 and early 2011 respectively.
Light Rail (Qing1gui3 轻轨): The Binhai Mass Transit Light Rail is Tianjin City’s main link to the suburb of Tanggu, and the Tianjin Economic Development Area, (TEDA). Like the subway, the system is very clean and modern, and the seats are very comfortable, like soft seats on a regular train. The ticket buying system is pretty similar to the subway, although slightly different because, I believe, they are owned by different companies, (they give you plastic tickets instead of plastic tokens). I’m working on adding the stations to the Google Tianjin map, as well as a list here, but I need to get my hands on a more complete map first. Costs for the Light Rail range from 3 to 6 yuan and the trains run every 5 to 20 minutes, depending on the time of day. The hours of operation are as follows:
Tianjin to TEDA
First Train: 6:30 AM
Last Train: 9:00 PM
TEDA Tianjin
First Train: 6:30 AM
Last Train: 9:00 PM
Taxis Danke_shane: Taxis are much more affordable here than in other cities of similar size in China. Most are of two kinds, the small red kind and the larger yellow kind that gets its fun name. "Bread Taxi" (面的mian4di2) from its resemblance to a loaf of bread. The Bread taxi is substantially cheaper, and is the best way to go if you have more than four people. However, they are older, more dangerous, and kind of looked down upon by many Chinese as being something that only poor people use. The yellow "bread taxis" have been phased out of the city proper, and can now only be found outside the main part of the city. Drivers are also willing to put your bicycle in the cab, in case your legs get tired on the way back home. The basics of taking a taxi are, as expected, pretty simple. Get in the taxi, try to communicate to the driver in Chinese where you are going, and direct them if they don't know what you are talking about. Carrying around business cards of the places that you often go is the best way to communicate with the taxi driver if you don't want to learn any Chinese. Here is some basic Chinese to direct the cab driver if need be: 右拐 you4guai3- turn right
左拐zuo3 guai3- turn left
一直走 yi1zhi1zou3- go straight
掉头 diao4tou2- turn around
到了 dao4 le0- we've arrived
用表 yong4biao3- use the meter
慢走 man4zou3- Go slowly, something nice to say when parting The most difficult trick in taking taxis is to not get taken on the long route and ripped off. I think the majority of drivers won?t try anything like this (I find the majority of taxi drivers to be jovial outspoken chaps happy to have a chance to temporarily befriend a foreigner), but there are enough huai4dan4s (slimeballs, bad guys) that you should watch out for it. Other friendly taxi drivers have warned me about the drivers at the airport and train station, who will almost certainly try to rip you off. Never agree to a pre-set price offered to you by a driver, it is almost certainly more than what the meter would cost. I personally hate nothing more than getting taken advantage of, so perhaps I am more concerned about this than rationale would dictate. The one sure way to not get ripped off is to actually know where you are going. But if you don?t, there are a couple of things you can do to make getting ripped off less likely. One way is to ask the cab driver if he/she knows where a place is before taking off; if he/she doesn?t, find a driver that does. Sometimes they say they know so that you take their cab, and then drive around aimlessly looking for the place with the meter running. They are not supposed to do this, and they have no right to expect you to pay for their long route, especially if they told you they knew where they were going initially. Of course, it?s hard to express anything more than general discontentment with limited Chinese. Perhaps the best general advice to give is that you should seem like you know where you are going. If you can, rehearse saying the name of the place a few times before you get in the cab, and say it like you?ve said it a thousand times before. Don?t get out maps or look around at the surroundings with wide eyes. If you have reason to believe that he/she is taking you a long route, you could try asking him/her about the route taken to let him/her know that you are paying attention. If you are absolutely sure that you were ripped off, and are willing to stick up for yourself, confront him/her, and tell your story on the discussion page. It is likely that confronting them, aside from making yourself feel good, will make such an occurrence less likely in the future.
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Bikes
Buying a new or used bike Danke_shane: You can find any kind of bike, used or new, at the large wholesale bicycle market near Wangdingdi, the big bypass a little west of Nankai Univeristy. I don?t know the address exactly. A cab drive will know where you want to go if you tell him in Chinese to go to the Wangdingdi wholesale bicycle market. 王顶堤自行车批发市场 (wang2ding3di1 zi4xing2che1 pi1fa1 shi1chang2). The selection is overwhelming, the gentle harassment from vendors is rife, the price range here is very broad, but probably no ten kuai used bicycles. Prices can be bargained a little here, but the intense competition of the open market is an advantage against getting overcharged. There is also a fairly large selection of new bicycles at full retail prices in Carrefour and Homeworld (see below). Buying a second-hand bicycle Dorkboysayswhat: Every guy out there with a 修车 (xiu1che1) sign and an air pump most likely has some quite serviceable secondhand bikes in the 70-100 kuai range, and sometimes less. If you're persistent 10 kuai bikes aren't unheard of. They'll also buy old ones. Ask them before you go to the supermarket and plunk 300 down on one that'll get ripped off the second you leave it outside for more than 24 hours. Chinese for "secondhand bike" is 二手自行车 (er2shou3zi4xing2che1) Protecting your bicycle from theft Dorkboysayswhat: Some things that will make your bike less appealing than others are rust, an old, ugly seat cover (ask the bike repair guys if they have an old one laying around; they work on nice seats, sometimes expensive seats are stolen), being parked next to a guard hut or somewhere else visible with few other bikes (if you live in an apartment building, take it inside the downstairs entryway; in public, don't park it with giant herds of other bikes), two kinds of locks (since bike thieves typically only carry one tool), chaining the BODY to something, and moving it every day. Repairing bicycles: Danke_shane: Soon after coming to Tianjin, most will become quite accustomed to seeing bicycle repair people everywhere with their sidewalk repair businesses. These people provide such services from putting air into tires (a few mao) to repairing holes in tires (~1-10 kuai, depending on how long they have to work on it), fixing chains and brakes (not more than 2-5 kuai, unless they need to replace something, and selling new seats (10-25 kuai), pedals, baskets, bells, locks (6-30 kuai), etc. In my experience, they usually do the work first and then tell you the price. They have never asked for what I would consider to be very much for their labor.
Getting To/From Beijing Airport:
- Danke_shane: The best and cheapest way to get to Beijing's airport for those who don't have their own driver anyway, is to catch the airport express bus at the Tianhuan Bus Station, (Tian Huan Ke Yun Zhan 天环客运站). Tickets are purchased on the bus for 80 kuai. The bus leaves just every half hour (except 4:30 AM) from about 4 in the morning until about 10 in the evening (I don?t exactly know when the last bus is, but will find out). The trip takes about two hours, unless there is heavy traffic. If you are coming from Beijing, you can find the bus in the parking lot opposite exit #13, look for the characters forTianjin (天津).
- To/from Tianjin Airport: There is currently one bus I'm aware of, (the 638), that makes a stop at the airport on the way to the city. The buses are new and modern, but a little on the small side. Thus, it can get pretty crowed there, especially since the first stop, (before it arrives at the airport), is the aviation college. Otherwise, you're pretty much stuck getting a taxi. Taxi's to the eastern part of the city should cost around 30 yuan, the Nankai area perhaps 40 or so, and Tanggu/TEDA for around 80.
- To/from Tianjin Train Station: Danke_shane: The Tianjin Main Train Station (天津火车站Tian1jin1 Huo3che1zhan4), where most useful trains take off from, is just on the East side of the Haihe river。A taxi from there to places in the city center will likely be under 20 kuai, but beware that you may get preyed on and taken the long route if you look like you don?t know where you are going. If you are going to Tianjin or Nankai University, bus #8 will take you there for just one kuai.
Buying Plane Tickets
- Danke_shane: If you go to the main office for Air China on Nanjing Lu (中国国际航空公司南京路办公室zhong1guo2guo2ji4hang2kong1gong1si1nan2jing1lu4ban4gong1shi4), you can purchase tickets to basically anywhere and get a 30% discount. This is the cheapest way I know of to buy tickets. There are also many travel agencies that will give you the same price. Ask them if the tickets are 打七折 (da3qi1zhe3 - 30% discount) to make sure. The office is at the same place as the express bus to the Beijing Airport. There are a great deal of companies that sell tickets to people as well, but the discounts are not as big. I was pretty happy getting a discount while buying plane tickets from the same woman for two years until I realized that I was actually paying much more than need be. To buy tickets at this office, you need a copy of the passport of each traveler. If you do not have this (for example if you are buying tickets for family members who are coming to visit) you may want to try other travel agencies before going through the trouble of dealing with international faxes.
Buying Train Tickets
- Danke_shane: The first thing to know about buying train tickets in China is that it is not a very consumer-friendly business. You cannot buy train tickets more than a week in advance. If you are traveling on a holiday, you must buy tickets right when they go on sale, or else it is too late. I have seen many sad situations of vacation plans being thwarted by ticket availability. It is extremely difficult to find train tickets that depart from a city other than the one you are in; connections may be needed.
That being said, there are different options available for how to get the tickets. You can go to the train station yourself and wait in (the sometimes extremely long) lines. There are also ticket offices and travel agencies that sell tickets scattered throughout the city. Ask someone who knows the area where you are how to find the most convenient place. There are also services that buy the tickets for you and deliver them to your house. It is extremely convenient, but costs 30 RMB per ticket. If you are interested, the number for one such company is 2711 0621.
There are four different classes of tickets: hard seat, soft seat, hard sleeper, soft sleeper (ying4zuo4硬座,ruan3zuo4软座,ying4wo4硬卧, ruan3wo4软卧). On holidays, or for long trips, I would recommend getting a sleeper seat if you can afford it. As for the sleeper seats, hard sleepers are in rooms with six cots, two sides stacked three high. I do not find them to be uncomfortable, but with there is a chance of being stuck with smokers, spitters, or excessant talkers. The soft seats are in suites with four cots in a room. They have television programming with American movies, but they are dubbed in Chinese. Perhaps because they are more expensive, you are somewhat less likely to be stuck with someone with offensive habits.
Maps
Getting a map of this city, (preferably one that uses English/Pinyin, and which lists some popular places in the city), is one of the most requested items in our forum. There are a couple different ways to go about it, which are listed below:
- Google Tianjin: This is www.TianjinExpats.net’s homegrown answer to the problem. While I’m definitely not intelligent or sophisticated enough to figure out how to create a real map, I am pretty decent at sticking things on maps other people have made. Thus, I’ve figured out that Google Earth is a great tool for mapmaking. In order to get Google Tianjin working you need to do the following:
So, I've been racking my brain on how to come up with a good map system for Tianjin, when all of a sudden I realized it had been sitting on my computer all along.
The first thing you need to do is go and download yourself a copy of Google Earth. It is endless fun anyways, and in this case is necessary to get your map of Tianjin working. You can download it here.
http://earth.google.com/
Once you have downloaded Google Earth, open it up, scroll over to China, and you will notice that you can zoom down in on Tianjin to a pretty detailed level.
The fact that I can locate my dormitory here in Tianjin is cool enough. However, it is made cooler by the fact that I can place bookmarks of all the places in the Tianjin City guide that we have listed here, along with instructions on how to get them. What makes this rock your socks off though is that we can share these bookmarks with each other, and in the process create a map of Tianjin that actually has places we want to go listed on it!
Once you have downloaded google earth and have gotten it up and running, download the file listed below. This is a small demonstration file to give you an idea of what you can do with this. You can open up the file using Google Earth, and there you will be able to find some bookmarks of places in Tianjin. If you click on the bookmarks, you will see that I've copied and pasted the descriptions from the Tianjin City Guide. I've also allowed you to upload attachments to the forum so you can make your own changes to the map and upload them for us here. Let me know what you think.
Google Tianjin can be downloaded from HERE (temporarily offline).
- Physical Maps: If you absolutely need labeled street names on a map to figure out where you are, or if carrying around your laptop and a copy of Google Earth has gotten a little tedious lately, there are a couple options for you.
Tianjin has recently started to put out a really good tourist map listing streetnames in English and Chinese, tourist information, taxi tips, train schedules, and more. It is called the "Tianjin Official Tourist Map", （Tian1jin1 lü3 guan1guang1 tu2 天津旅观光图). My guess is that it can probably be picked up at a good number of roadside stands and bookstores. The only place I’ve actually bought one myself though, is near the train station, in a small bookstore attached to the big post office right next to the station.
Also, if you happen to stumble into any high-end Western Restaurant or Hotel, there’s a good chance that you’ll be able to find a copy of JIN Magazine lying around. Inside their “Culture and Entertainment Guide”, there are a few maps of key districts in Tianjin as well as the Tanggu/TEDA area. There are quite a few listings of important places on here, too. Worth checking out.
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