A Walking Tour

A while back I blogged about the river that is right in front of the Sheraton where Coop and I can go for a nice long walk without having to cross the street except for 2 times! Crossing the street here is quite a challenge because pedestrians do not rule the roadways like they do in the US. I do my best not to cross, or if I have to, I cross with the locals because I figure they know what they are doing!! Anyway, the other day Coop and I went for a walk and I actually remembered my camera so I thought I would give you a picture tour of this river!!

Here is Coop, armed with his Goldfish, on the beginning of our walk. There is actually a decent sidewalk around the river which is very unusual here. Most sidewalks have many holes and jagged edges! Many of them are not very safe for a stroller!
Here are some of the weeping willows that line the river - I have grown very fond of these trees over the past 3 months!
Here are some colorful flowers that are still in full bloom!
This is one of many rock structures built along the river. There are also little "huts" built where many people gather to play cards or do tai chi.

Here is a picture I took from the bridge going back over the river. You can see some of the people fishing from here!

This is a picture of probably our favorite restaurant here in Tianjin!! The name of the restaurant is Din Tai Feng and the specialty here are Chinese dumplings. Our favorites are mini ones filled with a chicken broth type soup and pork mixture! They are delicious and I could probably eat them everyday! They even have a kids room with an ayi so if the kids are restless, off they go to play - how convenient! The other wonderful thing is, we can walk to this restaurant from our house!!

These are the "ghost houses" that we see on our walk. They are very large single family homes for China standards, but according to my neighbor, they have were built ten years ago and no one has lived in them, thus, they have been nicknamed, "the ghost houses"!

This is a large international complex going up right beside the Sheraton. Apparently it will be a hotel and apartments. I'm just hoping they add a Starbucks in there! Then I would have my favorite coffee drink and restaurant within walking distance!!

Here is an attempt of mine to take a picture of the Sheraton. It is hard to believe just from looking at it that it is a 5 star hotel, but the inside is quite nice and of course the food is delicious! It was actually the first 5 star hotel built in Tianjin, now there are quite a few! Thank goodness because that means more yummy foods for us to try. Please don't think I am a food snob, but here I typically only eat at hotels or well know restaurants because I'm not sure what sort of inspections go on.

Once we get to the Sheraton, we go inside and walk out the back door to our house! I am so glad I have a place to walk and enjoy the outdoors!!