Tianjin
is one of the four
municipalities
administered directly by
the central government
of China (the others
being Beijing, Shanghai
and Chongqing). Situated
in the wastern part of
the North China Plain,
120 kilometers southeast
of Beijing, Tianjin
faces Bohai Bay to the
wast and is the gateway
to Beijing. It was
established as a
garrison town in the
early years of the reign
of Emperor Yongle of the
Ming Dynasty
(1403-1424). The Yellow
River (Huanghe), whose
course has been diverted
three times in history,
used to flow into the
sea at Tianjin, creating
what is now the Haihe
delta.
With an area of more
than 110,000 square
kilometers and a
population of 7.7
million, Tianjin is a
major modern industrial
city. Its maritime and
chemical industries are
of great importance to
the country, and it is
one of the main textile
centers in China.
Tianjin carpets are
world-famous and a major
export commodity.
Xingang in Tianjin is
the largest artificial
harbour in China,
capable of berthing ten
thousand-ton oceangoing
ships. Its shipping
lines run to Dalian,
Yantai, Qingdao,
Shanghai, Guangzhou, and
Zhanjiang and maintain
trade ties with more
than ninety countries
and regions the world
over.
The city used to face an
acute shortage of water
for drinking and
industrial use. To solve
this problem, the Luanhe
River diversion protect,
the biggest municipal
water supply protect
ever undertaken in
China, was begun in the
summer of 1982. The
entire supply line is
234 kilometers long,
passing through the
Luanhe and Haihe valleys
and running across the
Yanshan mountain range.
It took a little over a
year to put the line
into operation. |