5- Pee
before you go out. The bathrooms are few and far between in
Tianjin and the ones you can find are sketchy at best the
only “American” toilets (where you get to sit) are found in hotels
and the occasional McDonalds or KFC. All the bathrooms you find in
Tianjin are stand up /squat toilets and are rarely clean.
I always cross my fingers hoping to get the toilets with the individual
hole in the ground instead of the trench that goes across multiple stalls.
Public bathrooms are only used when completely desperate and
I hold my breath the entire time.
4- BYOTP! OK-
yes you will see a theme now. Along with the sketchy toilets you
will never find any toilet paper. Everyone carries packs of tissues
with them and you will see families standing outside of public bathrooms and
moms handing out one tissue to everyone. Bonus is the tissues always work
as napkins as most restaurants don’t have napkins and if they are
available there is a charge for them.
Don’t forget
to bring the soap as well. If you are lucky enough to get a sink
outside the bathroom there will never be soap or towels. I declared
myself Tianjin’s “soap fairy” and I leave a bar of hotel soap at every bathroom
I stop at. No hand sanitizer is to be found in Tianjin and I will
be bringing some back with me on my next trip home.
3- Bring
your translation dictionary! I use “charades” quite often when I am
out and it’s actually a lot of fun. The other day I forgot my
translation dictionary and needed envelopes at the local Wal-Mart type
store. I spent 10 minutes looking for a box of envelopes and gave
up and went to a service assistant. OK—imagine explaining to someone who
didn’t speak English that you needed envelopes. After about 5
minutes of me pretending to write a letter and fold it and put it in an
“envelope” with a stamp she understood what I wanted. We had
a lot of laughs but it was seriously frustrating for her and for me.
By the way they don’t sell boxes of envelopes, only exotic looking
packs of 5, which is why I couldn’t find them the first time.
2- doesn’t
forget your hotel direction card. I carry the handy dandy card
the hotel gave me to show a taxi driver that I want to get back to the
Sheraton. This card works about 80% of the time as I still get
refused because I don’t speak Chinese or they don’t know where the location is
even with the translation card I carry. This card saves me on a
regular basis- I would be screwed without it and would be wandering the streets
lost.
1-Your
sense of adventure- Everyday I try and wander into a new part
of Tianjin. Sometimes I end up at “safe” Expat areas with restaurants
that have napkins and menus in both Chinese and English but quite often I end
up turning the corner into a completely unexpected adventure. There
are street markets where they sell whole roasted ducks hanging from a cart
that are chopped to order for you to eat on the street. Vegetable
vendors with corn and vegetables strewn out on blankets with chickens
wandering around pecking away at the produce you are looking to
buy. The chickens are for sale as well they will capture it, kill
it and clean it right there for you. Fish vendors with shrimp and
live fish jumping out of the bins. Small mom and pop restaurants with
children running around the kitchen and jars of rice liquor filled with snakes
and herbs.
We are
constantly felt welcome here in Tianjin but locals and Expats alike and every
day I look forward to a new adventure.
Cheers and here
is to Good Travel!
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