Tianjin – Day 14 and 15

Tianjin is Hebei’s former capital and is known as the Shenghai of the North. It’s a very interesting modern city, which will take us 2 days to explore.

Day 1 – Boat tour along the Hei River

The Hei River runs through Tianjin, and I think that to start with a river cruise and seeing the city’s skyline is a great way of getting a feel of the city.

I’ve been checking around and from what I found, Hai River ferry tours start out from Tianjin Railway Station, the entire tour takes around 1 hour.

There are 3 wharfs where visitors can opt to purchase tickets and board the tour ferries, the Tianjin Railway wharf, Wenhua Street wharf and Dabei Temple wharf, everyday from 09:00 -21:00, and they start out on the hour every hour.

Visitors are able to see the different attractions lining the riverbank and can opt to go out on the docks to look and shop at the various specialty and souvenir shops. Visitors need not pay extra for return trips, they can catch return ferries just by showing the driver their ticket stubs.

After the boat ride, returning to Tianjin Railway Station (Point A), we’ll walk on Haihe East Rd and cross The Ligonglou Bridge. We’ll turn left on Jiefang Bei St and walk until we reach the Astor Hotel (Point B).

Jiefang Bei St has many of Tianjin’s colonial structures from the French and British era.

After reaching the Astor Hotel, take a right on to Tai’an Rd until you reach the big Nanjing Ave then, take another right, take a left on Yingkou Rd and an immediate right on Xining Rd towards the Xi Kai Cathedral (Point C).

The Xi Kai Cathedral is based on the Notre-Dame church in Marseille and it is open on Sundays.

Continue on Xining Rd and turn right on Guiyang Rd, left on Nanjing and right again into Shenyang Rd. Here you should start walking towards the Antique Market (Point D).

The Antique Market, open on the weekends, is supposed to be the perfect place to find all sorts of collectables.

From the market take a right on Shandong Rd to No. 77 where you’ll find The Goubuli Dumpling Restaurant.

Tianjin is known for their city’s dumplings, and I read that this is the place to get the best, so take your late lunch of the day here.

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Day 2 – Ancient Culture Street

Start your day by arranging train tickets back to Beijing for today or the next. The high speed train takes 30 min.

If you have time, take it easy today and check out the Ancient Culture Street.

In the north part of town, the Ancient Culture Street is a recreation of an old Chinese Street. At the end of it lies the Tianhou Temple for the Goddess of the sea, it’s suppose to have beautiful tiled walls.

If you still have some time before returning to Beijing, take the rest of the day and do some shopping, there should be quite a few malls in this commercial city.

Shijiazhuang – Day 11-13

Shijiazhuang is the capital of the Hebei region, but most of the places we would like to see here are outside the city.

Day 1 – Dafo Si in Zhengding

After settling in Shijiazhuang, take a taxi in the morning and go to Dafo Si, should be a 10 min drive to Zhengding.

This is the Great Buddha Temple, this should be a marvelous site of a big bronze statue of Guanyin. Also the city of Zhengding is supposed to be very charming. If there’s time, walk around and soak up the atmosphere before getting back to Shijiazhuang.

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Day 2 – Zhaozhou Bridge

30 min outside the city, next to the town of Zhaoxian.

This is supposed to be a brilliant piece of engineering.

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Day 3 – The Hanging Palace of Cangyan

This should be amazing, again, it is 30 min outside the city.

This place is in the Cangyan Mountains, suspended on a bridge over the void. Should be really great.

When getting back in town, you should check your options and buy a plane ticket to your next destination, Tianjin, your last stop on your way back to Beijing.

Ji’nan and Qufu – Day 6-10

We arrive at Ji’nan, south of the Yellow River and spend a day here before moving on.

Day 1 – Thousand Buddha Mountain

In the morning head to Thousand Buddha Mountain, which seems the most interesting attraction in the area.

You can choose climbing the steps or taking the cable car. Here you can walk around, take pics with the statues and view the city from above.

When getting back in town, we’ll arrange transportation to our next destination, Qufu. _________________________________________________________________________

Day 2 – Getting to Qufu

In order to continue our trip we need to buy a train ticket to Yanzhou, near Qufu. From there we’ll buy a bus ticket to Qufu.

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Day 3 – Qufu

Qufu is best known for being the birthplace of Confucius, the famous philosopher. We’ll spend here 2 days.

On our first day we’ll visit the Confucius Temple. Again this is a large complex, take the time to walk around and get to know Confucius’s Philosophy, which basically can be summed up by the phrase, "Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself".

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Day 4 – Zoucheng and The Mencius Temple

For a more authentic experience we’ll take a trip outside the city to Zouchend and visit The Mencius Temple.  Mencius is another important philosopher, known for talking a lot about human nature, and saying "He who exerts his mind to the utmost, knows his nature", I’m not really sure what that means, but it sounds smart to me.

Should be a 30 min drive by Taxi.

This temple seems to be very quiet and peaceful as it is less popular than the other.

Spend the day walking around the complex. When getting back to Qufu, grab a lunch and make arrangements to get back to Ji’nan the next day.

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Day 5 – Back in Ji’nan

After arriving in Ji’nan, try to find a plane ticket to our next destination, Shijiazhuang in the Hebei region.

In the meantime, if there’s time, you should know that Ji’nan is also famous for it’s natural springs, so you should go and see the Black Tiger Spring.

Luoyang and The Longmen Caves - Day 4 and 5

Our next destination would be the farthest away from Beijing, and slowly we’ll return our root closer and closer back to our original destination, Beijing.

Luoyang is a city in the Henan province and is 15 min away from our main attraction in the region, The Longmen Caves.

We’ll spend here 2 full days.

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Day 1 - Longmen Caves

After settling in our hotel, start your first morning with a trip to the Longmen Caves, you can take a taxi, about 15 min from the city or maybe you can find a guided trip that will take you there.

I heard that there might be also guided toors when you get there but I’m not sure, also there are entrance fees.

This place will take a few hours to see, so you shouldn’t make extra plans for this day.

This place is kind of a Chinese Petra (you’ll understand if you’ve ever been to Jordan), where everything is carved in stone.

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Where to Eat in Luoyang ?

After getting back from the caves I found 2 recommended restaurants in the city, you can pick one today and the other, the next day, oddly they’re both on the same street:

Zhenbutong Fandian - No. 359 Zhongzhou Donglu

The most famous restaurant in Luoyang. Known for the traditional "Water Banquet". Has a total of 24 dishes with an overview of regional specialties (pancake with egg ravioli, Baozi) at unbeatable prices, stairs lead past pictures of the celebrities who have eaten there. Try the soup swallows' nests (Mudan Yancai), delicious, for 20 yuan.

Mudan Ting – No. 15 Zhongzhou Xilu

Located on the 2^nd floor of the three-star Louyang Peony Hotel. Have English menus and 20 courses of various soups.

Zoom Out: 

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Day 2 – White Horse Temple (Baima Si)

This is China’s oldest Buddhist monastery, located 10 min east of town.

Take a taxi over there and walk around the complex.

When you’re back in town go eat at one of the restaurants recommended above, and check where you can buy a plane ticket to your next destination, Ji’nan, the capital of the Shandong region, our first stop on our way to Qufu.