The coastal city of Tianjin (Tientsin) is situated at the Bohai Bay, along the outskirts of the North China Plain, surrounded by the province of Hebei. Over centuries, Tianjin was north China's economic center and a harbor for Beijing, which lies 100 km land inwards and is connected to Tianjin via railways and motorways (road traffic). Tianjin is the smallest of the four municipalities directly-controlled by the central government. Similar to Shanghai, it features architecture from the colonial period. The…