Hometown of Tianjin

The Ancient Culture Street in Tianjin is located at the northeast corner of Nankai District, outside the east gate of Tianjin and on the west bank of the Haihe River. It is a national 5A tourist attraction and one of the ten scenic spots in Tianjin. There are nearly a hundred shops in the Ancient Culture Street. It is a concentration of old Tianjin shops and folk handicraft shops, with authentic delicacies: Goubuli Baozi, Erduoyan Fried Cake, Pancake Fruit, Old Zhai Medicine Candy, Zhang's Water Shop, Tianjin Twist, etc. The tourist attractions include Tianhou Palace, 'Kite Wei' Kite, and Clay Man Zhang's colored sculpture. Tianhou was called the escort goddess by people in ancient times. It is said that she was a Fujianese, with the surname Lin and the name Mo, often sailing out to sea to rescue people in distress, so she was respected as a goddess by later generations. During the Yuan Dynasty, a large amount of grain had to be transported northward to the capital every year, first by sea to Tianjin, and then by river to the capital. In order to pray for safe navigation, the Yuan government revered the escort goddess as Tianfei, and built Tianhou Palace in coastal towns. The Tianhou Palace in Tianjin was built in 1326 AD. The 23rd day of the third lunar month is the birthday of the goddess. It introduces the historical changes in Tianjin and displays various folk customs. The Imperial Meeting was named after Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty visited this meeting when he went down to the south of the Yangtze River. The traditional performance venues are in the square in front of the Tianhou Palace and in the south and north of the palace. After the Ancient Culture Street was built, every 23rd day of the third lunar month (the auspicious day of the 'Tianhou' birthday), a grand imperial meeting is held here, performing dragon lantern dance, lion dance, Shaolin meeting, stilts, law drums, dry boats, ground yang songs, martial arts, and Beijing opera, Ping opera, Bangzi, etc.