A day trip to Tianjin

This time we had the train tickets already so we got to go to Tianjin.
10am we left the house and got into a taxi direction Beijing South Station (still no subway connecting). Of course we were in advance so we picked up coffees and waiting in the waiting area which to be honest has the most comfortable chairs ever for a public waiting area.
11:10am the boarding started. We passed through a check like in the subway sweeping our tickets (so modern), found the right car and go in. We were travelling 1st class and honestly it was quite comfortable and roomy. Although let's face it for 30min it's maybe not needed to sit in 1st class. However, as modern as the train was, it had the most futuristic toilet ever. The doors were automatic, the lock was automatic, the flush, the water, the paper... everything was automatic. Incredible! I did have a scary thought at some point. What happens when there is no electricity? Are you locked in?
Pushing that thought away we arrived in Tianjin in time. 1st objective was to buy the return ticket (just to be sure to have one the same day). The station is organized in such a way that arrival and departure are completely dissociated. Therefore we had to exit the station and re-enter it by another access to get to the ticket office. Obviously once you get in Tianjin you don't plan to leave it right away :) With some chinese and gesture we managed to get tickets, this time in 2nd class. Let's see how that will be.
Its now noon, we're hungry and ready for lunch. According to the guide, Nanshi food street is the place to go, with 100 restaurants in 1 building. Based on the map in Chinese we bought in Beijing station we knew we were not far away from Heping district where Nanshi food street is. But we did not have any idea where exactly. That did not stop us. We walked in the direction of the district, found Heping Lu (i.e. road) and there asked our way to anyone we could find. Bottom line it was always "go straight and turn left". At each corner we checked again for direction "go straight, turn left". This lasted for about 40min until we were told to turn left and then right at the 3rd traffic light. A bit more than 1 hour walk after we left the station we finally arrived in Nanshi food street. The place was indeed quite impressive, all in Chinese, with tons of food, some we still don't know what they are. The good thing about such a walk through the city is that we had the chance to grasp a good look at it. If I was to summarize Tianjin in 1 word I would say "construction". Everywhere you look they are building new buildings / towers. It's really like the whole city is under construction which makes it hard to find the few "original" buildings that we were supposed to see.
We explored the city the rest of the day, did find the ancient culture street, a temple, the cathedral (definitely not worth it) and had a very pleasant walk back to the station on the riverside.
Pictures - Pictures !
You can play the same game as us: try to identify which style or famous building they got inspired from :)
After a quick train ride, we grabbed a taxi and went to Sanlitun. I took my parents to Luga's for Tex Mex food and cocktails. Well deserved after a full day of sightseeing. Bonus: the weather in Beijing is officially in Spring / Summer mode so we had dinner outside. The 1st time this year!