Experience the best of Tianjin

Tianjin is one of China's four centrally administered municipalities, a major port on the Haihe River near the Bohai Sea, south-east of Beijing. After 1860 several foreign powers held concessions here, and the former Italian, French, British and other quarters still hold blocks of European-style villas, churches and banks. A waterfront promenade links these districts along the river, with bridges and a tall Ferris wheel.

Ancient Culture Street, a rebuilt old lane, sells paper cuttings, painted clay figures and calligraphy, and the Five Great Avenues quarter is full of villas once owned by politicians and warlords. The Porcelain House is covered in ceramic pieces inside and out. North of the city, the Great Wall reaches the Huangyaguan section, and the Panshan hills in Ji District have temples and wooded paths.

Street food is a point of pride: jianbing guozi, a thin crêpe wrapped around a fried cracker, steamed baozi stuffed with pork, and mahua, twisted fried dough. Spring and autumn are the mildest seasons for wandering the streets. Tianjin speaks a lively local dialect and has a long tradition of xiangsheng, comic dialogue performed in teahouses.