Answered by Mr.Hurry Sun from China | Feb. 13, 2010 14:23
Hi Mr.George,
It's so nice to know you are planning on visiting my hometown.
It's not possible to have a "half day looking around" because the port is really far from the urban area (about 50 km). The sight-seeing takes at least a day.
1. Since it is a tight schedule, I'd recommend that you see the Ancient Culture Street (古文化街), Gu Lou Street (鼓楼大街), and the Local Food Street (食品街), and Haihe River, if time permits. All these places are in the urban area, but half day is definitely not enough.
2. I don't quite know about the port since I haven't been there much, but if you would like to take a taxi, as I said above, it will be a real long distance and it should cost you no less than RMB100.
3. You can go by taxi to Tianjin Railway Station first to drop your luggage, and of course you have to pay for the luggage keeping service. After all you will have to leave for Beijing from the railway staion, so it will be convenient.
4. To get to Beijing, please go to Tianjin Railway Station and take a CRH (China Railway Highspeed) train (train number beginning with C) and it takes only half an hour to get to Beijing. It is said to be the fastest train in the world (350 km/h).
5. You can buy ticket either at the counter or at the machine at the railway staion.
6. Get off at Beijing South Railway Station (terminal of the train) and take subway line 4 and then transfer to line 1 and get off at Wang Fu Jing Staion. Taking a taxi is more convenient since you won't have to suffer from all those ups and downs in the subway stations with your luggage.
If you have more questions about Tianjin and Beijing, you can email me. The address is hotmail.com|esperame76. Tianjin is my hometown, and Wang Fu Jing is where I work, so hopefully I can give you useful information.