Recently in Tianjin Category
One of the pluses of this new job is traveling around China, and most of my time has been spent in the city of Tianjin. Tianjin, at least for me, was never on the radar. I lived in Beijing for a year and nine months before I left for Guangzhou, and I never once visited the city -- in fact, I never really even considered it. It's nothing against Tianjin... it's just it wasn't top of mind. When I wanted a vacation, Tianjin wasn't on the list.
So color me surprised when I had several hours of free time on a Sunday night. I wanted to grab a bite, and, in my mood, felt like sitting down in a pub and eating western food with a beer. Lo and behold, Tianjin has a number of such places. I picked Broadie's Tavern. It had a menu straight out of Tucson, Arizona. Lots of Mexican food, chicken wings (medium, hot, or "suicide"), cheese sticks and chicken fingers "deep fried to perfection". The menu was so extensive that I thought it was much moreso than anything I'd seen at a similar-style pub in Beijing. But when the food came, I realized I was still in a second-tier market. The "hot" wings were in a honey glaze with an odd, hard to describe "blue cheese" dip that was anything but blue cheese, and the caesar salad was in some kind of lemon dressing. But the menu still looked good....
Perhaps pub food isn't Tianjin's speciality. But's it's growing in many other areas, often under the radar of most people who are zeroed in on Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Beijing. According to an article in Jin Magazine (yes, Tianjin has its own glossy expat magazine, too!), real estate is booming:
...Michael Heart, Managing director of Tianjin Jones Lang LaSalle noted, "The appearance of new retail brands and MNCs opening offices help illustrate just how important Tianjin is becoming for companies' China strategies."
Really? Tianjin is important to companies' China strategies? Here's the synopsis of the city's retail real estate:
The booming economy and rising incomes will continue to drive the retail market. The annual growth rate of total retail sales of Tianjin has been above 14% since 2003. Effective rentals reached RMB 357.75/sqm/month 2007, and incrase of 25% over the same period last year.
The residential market is doing equally well:
In 2007, the Tianjin residential market began to mimic those of first tier cities, with rapid price rises and high absolute prices.... The firm's research analyst, Stefanie Zou noted "High-end residential prices increased 45.87% over the same period (4Q06), reaching RMB 13,712/square meter."
Now, Imagethief wrote in That's Beijing that expats in China would do well to get to know both Shanghai and Beijing, rather than people in each city bashing the other (and I admit, I quote Imagethief far too often in this blog, but it just seems to fit). But I'd like to go a step further: those foreigners who live in Shanghai and Beijing - and spend time solely in those cities - are missing out on the bigger changes happening elsewhere.
(Quick... what is the largest ferris wheel in the world? The London Eye? Nope... as of this moment, the Tianjin Eye is the world's highest.)
I've written extensively about Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Dongguan, Zhuhai, and the Pearl River Delta region and how it's frequently overlooked by those in Beijing and Shanghai. The PRD generates most of this country's wealth, yet gets no respect. And other cities are starting to chime in with their own success stories, too.
I was also surprised to find out that Sephora, the popular high-end cosmetics chain, has opened in Tianjin. In fact, I was also surprised to learn that Sephora is already in eight Chinese cities. Vancouver has been clamoring for a Sephora for as long as I can remember, and Tianjin, China, gets one first? Zara is next to move into Tianjin.
Each time I travel outside of the main Chinese cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Shenzhen), I'm amazed at the development I see. Perhaps it's my own naivete, but I always figured things were must more rustic out there. Make no mistake, in many parts of this country they are; but the developed world is encroaching on those areas, and fast.
