So after seeing the Great Wall, we headed towards Tianjin. It's about 3 and half hours from the Beijing area to Tianjin. This city is the 4th largest in China with a population of 12 million. It's a lot more modern than Beijing with taller towers and different types of food. The city lacked English, but still had more people speaking it rather than Beijing. I still had to use my phone for translation because the cab drivers had no idea what I was saying. Mandarin is one tough language. Even the tiniest bit of mispronunciation throws off the entire word and meaning.

The reason for visiting Tianjin was because our host Michael works and lives there. He had to work a couple days, so we made a little stop here before we headed south to Shanghai. Please scroll down to see the photos and descriptions.