Tianjin History & Culture

The history of Tianjin can be dated back over 600 years, through its prosperity and development stand only in modern times. As an international trading port from the early days, the busy trading has invigorated the city enormous vitality and verified Tianjin 's position and images as the major commercial port city in North China . Tianjin is located at the lower end of nine tributaries merging into the Haihe River which flows through the city. Tianjin 's local culture enjoys considerable variety.

It has both the warm and honest old inner city culture, and the riverside culture, full of life, vitality and vigor. Thanks to its historical experiences, Tianjin has encountered many European cultures, and their integration within a Chinese society has made Tianjin 's urban culture uniquely enchanting.

Tianjin 's architecture is particularly unique, with a combination of traditional Chinese culture architecture and the rich mixture of architecture culture from other parts of the world. It is known as the World Museum of Architecture. Even as early as the 19th Century, Tianjin 's national industries had developed to a sizeable scale. Its ship-building, dying and textile industries were at an advanced level nationwide. Tianjin has honest and simple social customs and morals; its art and folk culture are long respected and uniquely enchanting. The Ancient Street lies on the junction of three rivers and is the center of ancient Tianjin . With a Mazu Temple in its center, it is the cradle of Tianjin 's riverside culture. The Great Wall, running through Jixian County to the north of Tianjin is of primitive simplicity and charm. And China 's capital Beijing is 120km to the northwest. Its vast hinterland covers an area of more than 5 million sq. km in the north of China . As one of the municipalities under the direct administration of the Central Government of the People's Republic of China , Tianjin is the economic center of China 's Bohai rim and is being built a modern port city and a major economic center in Northern China . Tianjin is also a State-level city of historical and cultural value.

The population of Tianjin is close to 9.6 million, and the overall quality of Tianjin people is among the best in the country. There are now 20 universities and colleges in Tianjin with 230 disciplines and a student population of over 90,000. Around 20,000 Bachelor, Masters and Doctorate students graduate each year. A system of higher education has been formed in Tianjin to provide a balanced composition of professional training.

As a result of a breakthrough development in secondary technical and professional education, Tianjin has over 320 vocational and technical schools with a combined total of over 80,000 students, 39,000 of which leave school and enter the workplace each year. These schools provide high quality industrial workers for different trades.

Situated in the Beijing-Tianjin area with a high density of intellectual talent, Tianjin possesses over 150 institutions for natural science research and more than 600,000 technical personnel. The number of foreign specialists and scholars invited from abroad exceeds10, 000. There are 159 scientific research institutes, 8 State-level laboratories, 10 State-level research centers for engineering technology and 27 State or Ministerial technical testing centers.

Tianjin is rates as number 3 among major Chinese cities with comprehensive Hi-tech capabilities. Tianjin 's human resource advantages can provide overseas funded enterprises, new and hi-tech ones in particular, with high quality personnel.

Before 1949, Tianjin 's education developed slowly, and by 1948, there are only 479 schools, 156 thousand students and 7 thousand teachers in Tianjin . The rate of school attendance among all school-agars is only 33.2%, on the contrary, the rate of illiterates among rural and urban people is above 80%.

After 1949, when People's Republic of China was founded, Tianjin 's education grew vigorously and formed an integrated educational system from elementary education to higher education progressively, including preschool education, special education, adult education and cadre education. During the 40 years from 1949 to 1991, all types of schools in Tianjin have trained 824 thousand various qualified technicians.

Entering 90's, Tianjin stepped up reform in education and made great progress not only in the reformation in some fields such as schools running, schools management, socialization of rear service in schools, enrollment system and job-assignment system for graduating students; but also in quickening the adjustment of educational structure, improving educational quality and conditions of running schools, optimizing the teaching stuff, as well as perfecting the supervision system.