Economy

Tianjin's GDP reached 1.572 trillion yuan in 2014, an increase of 10.0 percent over 2013. The city of Tianjin recorded China's highest per-capita GDP with $17,126, followed by Beijing with $16,278 and Shanghai with $15,847.[26]The municipality recorded a 16.5% increase in GDP in 2009, second only to the 16.9% rate in resource-rich Inner Mongolia, and nearly double the national growth rate. In the short term, infrastructure spending will buoy Tianjin's economy. There are substantial projects under way to extend the metro system and improve road and rail links with the nearby national capital, Beijing.[citation needed]Although the international financial crisis spread rapidly and the speed of world economy growth is slowing down, Tianjin economy still maintains at a steady and fast growing speed. In 2008, Tianjin's total output value was RMB 635.438 billion, an increase of 16.5%, say RMB 130.398 billion increase over last year, the first time with an increase of exceeding RMB 100 billion. The total output value per capita in Tianjin was US$7,800, nearing the level of middle developed countries. Tianjin had realized a directly contracted foreign investment of up to $13.256 billion, an increase of 15.1%, and actual contributed capital of $7.420, increasing 40.6% year on year. So far Tianjin has had 21,048 companies with foreign investment, with accumulated foreign investment of $47.2 billion.At the same time, Tianjin is actively developing financial reform and innovation. The China Bohai Bank, the first national commercial bank limited by shares with headquarters in Tianjin, had set up six branches and 14 offices open to the public by the end of 2008. In March 2008, the national non-listed public companies equity exchange market (OTC) was established in Tianjin upon approval of the State Council.Tianjin has become the pilot city with the most industrial investment funds in China. The China National Private Equity Forum was held in Tianjin again, with approx. 500 investment companies and private fund institutions as well as about 2,000 growing enterprises involving in global capital circulation through this Capital Connection in Tianjin. Supported by the strong actual goods exchange, Tianjin takes futures industry development as a key part of its financial reform and innovation. In July 2008, the Yide Futures Broker Co. moved its headquarters to Tianjin. Tianjin Finance Town Project, North Jiefang Road as its axle, has been initiated. It will be built into a comprehensive, open and intellectual finance service area within ten years.Tianjin is transforming into a hub city for international shipping and logistics, modern manufacturing and research and development. Nominal GDP of Tianjin has swelled by 2.8 times from 184 RMB billion in 2001 to 505 RMB billion in 2007. Tianjin pillar industries are electronic information technology, automotive, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, metallurgy and petrochemicals industries. The new coastal area, consisting of Tianjin Port, Tianjin Economic and Technology Development Area and Tianjin Bonded area, has attracted numerous world-famous businesses like Motorola, Toyota and Samsung. Globalization and opening up of the economy to the rest of the world have brought about remarkable benefits to the economic growth of Tianjin.Government finance revenue of Tianjin increased by more than threefold from 16 RMB billion in 2001 to 54 RMB billion in 2007. As revenue rose, expenditure on science and technology, education, culture, health and sports followed suit as well, reaching 10 billion RMB in 2004, constituting to 30.7% of the city's financial expenditure. Revenue has also been used in the building of infrastructure such as new roads, new bridges and commercial houses. One of the development objectives in the 11th Five year Plan is to have financial revenue growing at the rate of 16% annually.

Transport

Tianjin port is the world's top-level and China's largest artificial deep water harbor, and the throughput capacity ranks fifth in the world. Located in Binhai Economic Zone, a national new economic zone of China, Tianjin harbor is the port of call of international cruises visiting the wider area, including Beijing.Tianjin's harbor area of Binhai/TEDA has a modern, high speed rubber tired tram system, which is the first of its kind in China & Asia. Constructed in 2006, this marked a return of the tram to Tianjin, which once had an extensive standard steel-wheeled tramway network. The original Tianjin tram network was constructed by a Belgian company in 1904 and opened in 1906. It was the first citywide tramway system in China. It closed in 1972.There is also a light railway line in the city, the Binhai Mass Transit line. The line runs between downtown Tianjin and TEDA (Tianjin Economic Development Area) in the seaside region. The eastern part of the line began service on March 28, 2004. The western part of the line is scheduled to be completed in 2006.There is also a guided rail tram system in TEDA, called TEDA Modern Guided Rail Tram.The municipality consists of two rapid transit systems, Tianjin Metro and Binhai Mass Transit. They are currently under heavy expansion from five to nine lines. Five lines are currently operating both in the City and the Binhai area. As of October 2016, the entire network of Tianjin Metro and Binhai Mass Transit has 95 stations and 5 lines.Construction work on the Tianjin Metro started on July 4, 1970. It was the second metro to be built in China and commenced service in 1984. The total length of track was 7.4 kilometres (5 miles). The metro service was suspended on October 9, 2001 for reconstruction. The original line is now part of Line 1 of the new metro system. It was re-opened to the public in June 2006. The track was extended to 26.188 km (16.272 mi) and there are a total of 22 stations. Construction work on Line 2 and Line 3 was completed in 2012 and the two lines are now in operation. Several new metro lines are planned.There are several railway stations in the city, Tianjin Railway Station being the principal one. It was built in 1888. The station was initially located at Wangdaozhuang (simplified Chinese: 旺道庄; traditional Chinese: 旺道莊; pinyin: Wàngdàozhuāng). The station was later moved to Laolongtou (simplified Chinese: 老龙头; traditional Chinese: 老龍頭; pinyin: Lǎolóngtóu) on the banks of the Hai He River in 1892, so the station was renamed Laolongtou Railway Station. The station was rebuilt from scratch in 1988. The rebuilding work began on April 15, 1987 and was finished on October 1, 1988. The Tianjin Railway Station is also locally called the 'East Station', due to its geographical position. In January 2007, the station began another long-term restructuring project to modernize the facility and as part of the larger Tianjin transport hub project involving Tianjin Metro lines 2, 3, and 9 as well as the Tianjin-Beijing High-speed rail. Tianjin West Railway Station and Tianjin North Railway Station are also major railway stations in Tianjin. There is also Tanggu Railway Station is located in the important port area of Tanggu District, and Binhai Railway Station and Binhai North Railway Station located in TEDA, to the north of Tanggu. There are several other railway stations in the city that do not handle passenger traffic. Construction on a Beijing-Tianjin high-speed rail began on July 4, 2005 and was completed by August 2008.There were over 900 bus lines in the city as of 2005.Some roads and bridges have retained names that hark back to the Republic of China era (1912-1949) such as Minquan Gate and Beiyang Road. Like with most cities in China, many roads in Tianjin are named after Chinese provinces and cities. Also, Tianjin is unlike Beijing, in that very few roads run parallel to the major four cardinal directions.Tianjin has three ring roads. The Inner and Middle Ring Roads are not closed, traffic-controlled roadways and some often have traffic light intersections. The Outer Ring Road is the closest thing to a highway-level ring road, although traffic is often chaotic.Tianjin Binhai International Airport (ZBTJ) is located in Dongli District roughly 13 km (8 mi) away from downtown area. The city will also be served by the new Beijing Daxing International Airport in Beijing, currently under construction and to be completed by 2017.[51]Tianjin Binhai International Airport now has a terminal building which covers an area of 25,000 m2 (269,000 sq ft), a merchandise warehouse which covers an area of 29,500 m2 (318,000 sq ft) and runways measuring 3.6 km (2.2 mi) in total. It has a grade 4E airstrip, which all kinds of large aircraft can take off from and land safely on. Tianjin Binhai International Airport[52] has 59 flight routes, connecting 48 cities, including 30 domestic cities and 17 foreign cities. Airline companies like Japan Airlines, All Nippon Airways, Korean Air, Asiana Airlines, Singapore Airlines Cargo and Martinair Holland all have flights to Tianjin Binhai International Airport.

Politics

The politics of Tianjin is structured in a dual party-government system like all other governing institutions in the mainland China.The Mayor of Tianjin is the highest-ranking official in the People's Government of Tianjin. Since Tianjin is a municipality, the Communist Party of China Municipal Committee Secretary is colloquially termed the "Tianjin CPC Party chief".

Geography

Tianjin is located along the west coast of the Bohai Gulf, looking out to the provinces Shandong and Liaoning across those waters, bordered by Beijing 120 kilometres (75 mi) to the northwest, and except for the east, is surrounded on all sides by Hebei. With a latitude ranging from 38° 34' to 40° 15' N, and longitude ranging from 116° 43' to 118° 04' E, the total area is 11,860.63 square kilometres (4,579.41 square miles). There is 153 km (95 mi) of coastline and 1,137.48 kilometres (706.80 miles) of land border.[16] It lies at the northern end of the Grand Canal of China, which connects with the Yellow River and Yangtze River. The municipality is generally flat, and swampy near the coast, but hilly in the far north, where the Yan Mountains intrude into northern Tianjin. The highest point in the municipality is Jiuding Peak (九顶山) in Ji County on the northern border with Hebei, at an altitude of 1,078.5 m (3,538 ft).The Hai River forms within Tianjin Municipality at the confluence of the Ziya River (子牙河), Daqing River (大清河), Yongding River, North Grand Canal, and South Grand Canal, and enters the Pacific Ocean within the municipality as well, in Tanggu 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.Tianjin features a four-season, monsoon-influenced climate, typical of East Asia, with cold, windy, very dry winters reflecting the influence of the vast Siberian anticyclone, and hot, humid summers, due to the monsoon. Spring in the city is dry and windy, occasionally seeing sandstorms blowing in from the Gobi Desert, capable of lasting for several days. The monthly 24-hour average temperature ranges from −3.4 °C (25.9 °F) in January to 26.8 °C (80.2 °F) in July, with an annual mean of 12.90 °C (55.2 °F). With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 48% in July to 61% in October, the city receives 2,522 hours of bright sunshine annually. Having a low annual total precipitation of 511 millimetres (20.1 in), and nearly three-fifths of it occurring in July and August alone, the city lies within the semi-arid zone, with parts of the municipality being humid continental (Köppen Dwa/BSk, respectively).[17]Extreme temperatures have ranged from −22.9 °C (−9 °F) to 40.5 °C (105 °F).

Demographics

At the end of 2009, the population of Tianjin Municipality was 12.28 million, of which 9.8 million were residential holders of Tianjin hukou (permanent residence). Among Tianjin permanent residents, 5.99 million were urban, and 3.81 million were rural.[31] Tianjin has recently shifted to rapid population growth, its population has reached 14.72 million as of 2013 end.[32]The majority of Tianjin residents are Han Chinese. There are also 51 out of the 55 minor Chinese ethnic groups living in Tianjin. Major minorities include Hui, Koreans, Manchus, and Mongols.

History

The land where Tianjin is located today was created in ancient times by sedimentation of various rivers entering the sea at Bohai Gulf, including the Yellow River which entered the sea in this area at one point. Before this time, it was open sea.The opening of the Grand Canal during the Sui dynasty prompted the development of Tianjin into a trading center.Qing dynasty[edit]During the Qing dynasty (1644–1911) Tianjin was promoted to a prefecture or Zhou (州) in 1725 with Tianjin County established under the prefecture in 1731. Later it was to upgraded to an urban prefecture or Fu (府) before becoming a relay station (驻地) under the command of the Viceroy of Zhili.1902 map of TianjinOpening up as a treaty port[edit]See also: Concessions in TianjinIn 1856, Chinese soldiers boarded The Arrow, a Chinese-owned ship registered in Hong Kong flying the British flag and suspected of piracy, smuggling, and of being engaged in the opium trade. They captured 12 men and imprisoned them. In response, the British and French sent gunboats under the command of Admiral Sir Michael Seymour to capture the Taku forts near Tianjin in May 1858. At the end of the first part of the Second Opium War in June of the same year, the British and French prevailed, and the Treaties of Tianjin were signed, which opened Tianjin to foreign trade. The treaties were ratified by the Emperor of China in 1860, and Tianjin was formally opened to Great Britain and France, and thus to the outside world. Between 1895 and 1900, Britain and France were joined by Japan, Germany and Russia, and even by countries without Chinese concessions such as Austria-Hungary, Italy and Belgium, in establishing self-contained concessions in Tianjin, each with its own prisons, schools, barracks and hospitals.[6] These nations left many architectural reminders of their rule, notably churches and thousands of villas. Today those villas provide an exotic flavour to Tianjin.Church of Our Lady's Victories, built in 1869, was the site of the Tientsin Church IncidentThe presence of foreign influence in Tianjin was not always peaceful; one of the most serious violent incidents to take place was the Tianjin Church Incident. In June 1870, the orphanage held by the Wanghailou Church (Church Our Lady's Victories), in Tianjin, built by French Roman Catholic missionaries, was accused of the kidnapping and brainwashing of Chinese children. On June 21, the magistrate of Tianjin County initiated a showdown at the church that developed into violent clashes between the church's Christian supporters and non-Christian Tianjin residents. The furious protestors eventually burned down Wanghailou Church and the nearby French consulate and killed eighteen foreigners including ten French nuns, the French consul, and merchants. France and six other Western nations complained to the Qing government, which was forced to pay compensation for the incident.In 1885 Li Hongzhang founded the Tianjin Military Academy 天津武備學堂 for Chinese army officers, with German advisers, as part of his military reforms.[7] The move was supported by Anhui Army commander Zhou Shengchuan.[7]:267 The academy was to serve Anhui Army and Green Standard Army officers. Various practical military, mathematic and science subjects were taught at the academy. The instructors were German officers.[7]:267 Another program was started at the academy for five years in 1887 to train teenagers as new army officers.[7]:268 Mathematics, practical and technical subjects, sciences, foreign languages, Chinese Classics and history were taught at the school. Exams were administered to students. The instruction for Tianjin Military Academy was copied at the Weihaiwei and Shanhaiguan military schools.[7]:268 The 'maritime defense fund' supplied the budget for the Tianjin Military Academy, which was shared with the Tianjin Naval Academy.[7]:268 The Tianjin Military Academy in 1886 adopted as part of its curriculum the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.[8] Among its alumni were Wang Yingkai and 段祺瑞 Duan Qirui. Among its staff was Yinchang.In June 1900, the Boxers were able to seize control of much of Tianjin. On June 26, European defense forces heading towards Beijing were stopped by Boxers at nearby Langfang, and were defeated and forced to turn back to Tianjin. The foreign concessions were also under siege for several weeks.Tung Lai Bank building on Heping Road, built in 1930In July 1900, the Eight-Nation Alliance recaptured Tianjin. This alliance soon established the Tianjin Provisional Government, composed of representatives from each of the occupying forces (Russian, British, Japanese, German, French, American, Austro-Hungarian, and Italian). The city was governed by this council until August 15, 1902 when the city was returned to Qing control. Eminent Qing General Yuan Shikai led efforts to transform Tianjin into a modern city, establishing the first modern Chinese police force. In 1907, Yuan supervised China's first modern democratic elections for a county council.Major crossing (Rue Général Foch and Rue de Chaylard) of downtown Tientsin in French concessionWestern nations were permitted to garrison the area to ensure open access to Beijing. The British maintained a brigade of two battalions in Tianjin, and the Italians, French, Japanese, Germans, Russians, and Austro-Hungarians maintained understrength regiments; the United States did not initially participate. During World War I, the German and Austro-Hungarian garrisons were captured and held as Prisoners of War by Allied Forces while the Bolshevik government withdrew the Russian garrison in 1918. In 1920, the remaining participating nations asked the United States to join them, and the US then sent the 15th Infantry Regiment, less one battalion, to Tianjin from the Philippines.Because of the rapid development of industry, commerce and finance, Tientsin was established as a municipality of China in 1927. From 1930 to 1935, Tientsin was the provincial capital of Hopeh, after that re-established as a municipality.Garrison duty was highly regarded by the troops. General George C. Marshall, the "architect of victory" in World War II when he was the United States Army Chief of Staff, served at Tianjin in the 1920s as Executive Officer of the 15th Infantry. The US withdrew this unit in 1938 and a US presence was maintained only by the dispatch of a small US Marine Corps unit from the Embassy Guard at Beijing.Asahi Street (now Heping Road) in 1939 Tianjin floodSecond Sino-Japanese War[edit]On July 30, 1937, Tianjin fell to Japan, as part of the Second Sino-Japanese War, but was not entirely occupied, as the Japanese for the most part respected foreign concessions until 1941, when the American and British concessions were occupied. In the summer of 1939, there occurred a major crisis in Anglo-Japanese relations with the Tientsin Incident. On June 14, 1939, the Imperial Japanese Army surrounded and blockaded the British concession over the refusal of the British authorities to hand over to the Japanese six Chinese who had assassinated a locally prominent Japanese collaborator, and had taken refuge in the British concession. For a time, the 1939 crisis appeared likely to cause an Anglo-Japanese war, especially when reports of the maltreatment by the Japanese Army of British subjects wishing to leave or enter the concession appeared in the British press. The crisis ended when the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was advised by the Royal Navy and the Foreign Office that the only way to force the Japanese to lift the blockade was to send the main British battle fleet to Far Eastern waters, and that given the current crisis in Europe that it would be inappropriate to send the British fleet out of European waters, thus leading the British to finally turn over the six Chinese, who were then executed by the Japanese. During the Japanese occupation, Tianjin was ruled by the North China Executive Committee, a puppet state based in Beijing.On August 9, 1940, all of the British troops in Tianjin were ordered to withdraw. On November 14, 1941 the American Marine unit stationed in Tianjin was ordered to leave, but before this could be accomplished, the Japanese attacked the United States. The American Marine detachment surrendered to the Japanese on December 8, 1941. Only the Italian and French concessions (the local French officials were loyal to Vichy) were allowed by the Japanese to remain. When Italy signed an armistice with the Allies in September 1943, Japanese troops took the Italian concession following a battle with its garrison, and the Italian Social Republic formally ceded it to Wang Jingwei's Japan-controlled puppet state. Japanese occupation of the city lasted until August 15, 1945, with the surrender of Japan marking the end of World War II.Post World War II[edit]In Pingjin Campaign of Chinese Civil War, the city was captured after 29 hours of fighting. Finally the Communists took over Tianjin on 15 January 1949.More recently, since 2008 Tianjin has held the Annual Meeting of the New Champions of World Economic Forum (also called Summer Davos), in alternating years with another Chinese city, Dalian.[9]In October 2010, the UN Climate Change Conference convened in Tianjin.[10]Tianjin Haihe Jinwan PlazaPanorama of Hai RiverOn 12 August 2015, huge explosions in the Binhai area of the city caused widespread damage and hundreds of casualties.[11] Chinese state media reported that at least the initial blast was from unknown hazardous materials in shipping containers at a plant warehouse owned by Ruihai Logistics,[12] a firm specializing in handling hazardous materials.[13] 173 people were killed, nearly 800 others were wounded, and eight remain missing.