CHINA 5A TRAVEL
Tianjin's Qing-style old street arranged around a 700-year-old Mazu temple - clay-figurine masters, New Year woodblock prints, crosstalk teahouses and the city's signature snacks in one free, flagstoned, lantern-hung strip along the Haihe.
The Ancient Culture Street is Tianjin's folk heart: a pedestrian quarter of imitation-Qing shopfronts in Nankai district, strung with lanterns and arranged around the Tianhou Palace - a Mazu temple founded in 1326 that blessed the boatmen of the Grand Canal trade. It was here, at the 'Golden Cross' where canal met river, that old Tianjin grew up; the street now gathers the city's most famous old brands and craft workshops in a couple of flagstoned lanes.
The crafts are the point: Clay Figure Zhang's painted statuettes, Yangliuqing's New Year woodblock prints, Yidecheng's snuff museum, Cai's imperial feather-dusters and Qiaoxiangge's cloisonné and embroidery. Between them, the Mingliu Teahouse pours jasmine tea and stages Tianjin's home art, crosstalk comedy (xiangsheng), while the Tianjin Folk Museum beside the temple stacks old trams and Mazu votive boards in its courtyard.
The street is free and always open, at its best in the run-up to the Lantern Festival when the temple fair takes over, and at its tastiest at any hour: Goubuli's soup-heavy buns, mahua fried dough twists, Guoren Zhang's candied nuts and the city's universal breakfast, jianbing guozi, fold the whole visit into a three-hour feast.
Highlights
Tianhou Palace
The 1326 Mazu temple at the street's center - incense, eaves with staring roof beasts and the old blessing rites of canal boatmen.
Clay Figure Zhang
The family workshop museum of China's most famous painted clay statuettes - vivid characters from street life to opera.
Yangliuqing prints
The New Year woodblock tradition of the nearby painting town - fat babies and door gods still printed by hand.
Mingliu Teahouse crosstalk
Tianjin invented modern Chinese crosstalk comedy; this teahouse keeps the art nightly with tea and sunflower seeds.
Lantern Festival fair
From Chinese New Year to the Lantern Festival the street becomes one long temple fair - performances, craft stalls and lantern light.
The snack run
Goubuli buns, fried dough twists, candied nuts and jianbing guozi in sequence - Tianjin's edible folklore.
Photo Gallery
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