Many colleagues envy me before the Spring Festival, for it takes only one hour's train ride from Beijing to get back to my hometown, Tianjin.
Indeed, for Beijingers, taking a trip to Tianjin is like visiting a neighbor. Although there's nothing fancy in his house, you feel comfortable there, and the more you know him, the more you want to make friends with him.
Unlike Beijing, most streets in Tianjin do not run north-south or west-east, but seem to be following their own inclinations, which makes it very easy for an outsider to get lost. Sometimes you think you are going somewhere, but you may end up at the place where you started. Bear in mind that the directions of most roads in Tianjin follow the winding Haihe River.
Another obvious difference is the dialect. According to linguistic research, the first tone in Tianjin dialect is pronounced much lower than that in putonghua, by about one octave. For an ear that is used to putonghua, the Tianjin dialect sounds like someone singing karaoke who can't hit the high notes of a song.
Tianjin is a humorous city. Many famous xiangsheng (crosstalk) performers are from here, including Ma Sanli, one of the greatest xiangsheng masters of all time, and Guo Degang, inarguably today's hottest star.
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