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Tianjin is one of the four
municipalities of
China.
As a municipality, Tianjin has
provincial-level status and comes directly under
the central government. Tianjin's urban area is the third
largest in China, after
Shanghai and
Beijing.
Tianjin's urban area is
located along the
Hai
He River. Its ports, some distance away, are
located on
Bohai
Gulf in the
Pacific Ocean. Tianjin Municipality borders
Hebei
province to the north, south, and west; the municipality of
Beijing is to the northwest, and
Bohai
Gulf to the east.
Tianjin is at the northern end of the
Grand Canal of China,
which connects with the
Huang He and
Yangtze rivers.
Tianjin Municipality is
generally flat, and swampy near the coast, but hilly in the
far north, where the
Yanshan Mountains
pass through the tip of northern Tianjin. The highest point
in Tianjin is
Jiushanding Peak
on the northern border with
Hebei, at an
altitude of 1078
m.
The
Hai He River forms
within Tianjin Municipality at the confluence of the
Ziya River,
Daqing River,
Yongding River,
North Grand Canal,
and
South Grand Canal;
and enters the
Pacific Ocean at
Tianjin Municipality as well, in
Dagu District.
Major reservoirs include the
Beidagang Reservoir
in the extreme south (in
Dagang District)
and the
Yuqiao Reservoir
in the extreme north (in
Ji County).
The urban area of
Tianjin is found in the south-central part of the
Municipality. In addition to the main urban area of Tianjin
proper, the coast along the Bohai is lined with a series of
port towns, including
Tanggu and
Hangu.
Tianjin's
climate is a
monsoon-influenced
humid continental climate
(Koppen
climate classification Dwa) characterized
by hot, humid
summers, due to
the
monsoon, and dry,
cold
winters, due to
the
Siberian
anticyclone.
Average highs in January and July are 36 degrees F (2C) and
87 degrees F (31C) respectively). Spring is windy but dry,
and most of the
precipitation
takes place in July and August. Tianjin also experiences
occasional spring sandstorms which blow in from the Gobi
Desert and may last for several days.
People from urban Tianjin speak
Tianjin dialect,
which comes under the
Mandarin
subdivision of
spoken Chinese.
Despite its proximity to
Beijing,
Tianjin dialect
sounds quite different from
Beijing dialect,
which provides the basis for
Putonghua,
official spoken language of the
People's Republic of China.
Tianjin cuisine
places a heavy focus on
seafood, due to
Tianjin's proximity to the sea. Prominent menus include the
Eight Great Bowls
, a combination of eight mainly meat dishes. It can be
further classified into several varieties, including the
rough , smooth , and high . The
Four Great Stews
refers actually to a very large number of stews, including
chicken, duck, seafood, beef, and mutton.
Tianjin also has several
famous
snack items.
Goubuli is a
traditional brand of
baozi (steamed
buns with filling) that is famous throughout China.
Guifaxiang is a
traditional brand of
mahua (twisted
dough sticks).
Erduoyan is a
traditional brand of fried rice cakes.
Tianjin is a respected
home base of
Beijing opera, one
of the most prestigious forms of
Chinese opera.
Ma Sanli (1914
-
2003), an ethnic
Hui and longtime
resident of Tianjin, is paramountly respected in China for
his
xiangsheng, a
hugely popular form of Chinese entertainment similar to
stand-up comedy.
Ma Sanli delivered some of his xiangsheng in the
Tianjin dialect.
Yangliuqing (Green
Willows), a town about 15
km west of
Tianjin's urban area and the seat of Tianjin's
Xiqing District,
is famous for its popular
Chinese New Year-themed,
traditional-style, colourful
wash
paintings. Tianjin
is also famous for
Zhang's clay figurines
which are a type of colourful figurine depicting a variety
of vivid characters, and Tianjin's
Wei's kites ,
which can be folded to a fraction of their full sizes, are
noted for portability.
People from Tianjin are
stereotyped to be
eloquent, humorous, open, and unfettered. There is a term
for the stereotype of the always-eloquent and
sometimes-humorous Tianjin native:
w�izuzi
which translates roughly as "the Tianjin mouth". This
stereotype is perhaps partially the result of
Ma Sanli's
reputation .
content source for this page:
Wikipedia.org
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