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Some may say we were crazy, but we decided
to embark on a trip to Tianjin on May Day, when 1.2 billion Chinese people started their week long
vacation. Although the crowd at the Beijing Railway Station was stupifying, we succeeded in
getting two seats on the 11am train!
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| To kill the time before our train departed,
we visited the Ancient Observatory nearby and admired some old (real and fake) astronomical instruments.
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| . Our train was close to exploding with families of other Beijingers who
shared our brilliant idea of visiting Tianjin that day, all dressed in their holiday clothes (3 piece suits and all). It was a
hotter than hell one-hour trip, as the AC was not working.
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We hopped onto one of the tricycles roaming
Tianjin Station. Our nimble little "taxi" quickly weaved through slow moving traffic and deposited us on a street full of shoppers and street vendors alike.
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| Vendors were selling everything from traditional folk art, to clothing and shoes, to
even washing machines!
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We shopped till we almost dropped and stuffed ourselves with
Tianjin specialty buns and fresh seafood. Thus concluded our daytrip -- we both liked Tianjin because it was not
terribly overbuilt like Beijing, and it retained some originality.
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