Tianjin is located by the Bohai Sea. It is more than just a port.
It is said that in the past, Puyi left the Forbidden City and came to Tianjin. He even excitedly told the outside world, "Tianjin is better than the Forbidden City!"
There is a well - known saying, "Tianjin, at the estuaries of nine rivers, has three floating bridges and two passes." It means that the nine rivers converge into the sea. The Haihe River system in Tianjin gathers many rivers in North China. It is truly worthy of the name "the Emperor's Ferry".
Behind modern Chinese history lies the history of opening ports, and behind the history of opening ports lies the history of maritime trade.
Tianjin has been open as a port for 164 years. It was born by the sea and thrived towards the sea. In the Bohai Rim area, in fact, Tianjin is the big brother of this "family", having nurtured almost half of Hebei.
Tianjin's Birth from the Sea
Last month, there was a matter of some significance that even caught the attention of official media and made them compete to report it.
On September 18th, 11.7 tons of blueberries imported from Peru arrived at Tianjin Port after a 34 - day journey. This was also the first time that blueberries imported from South America were unloaded at a northern port in China.
Why did a few boxes of blueberries attract the attention of official media? Because behind this is the opening of the direct shipping route from Tianjin Port to South America in December last year. Since the opening of the route, Tianjin Port has received and unloaded more than 30 voyages in total. It has imported special seasonal products from South America such as white shrimp, frozen beef, cherries, and red wine, and exported domestic chemical products, glass, coiled steel, and complete vehicles. This is an efficient and convenient maritime logistics channel, which effectively promotes trade between northern China and South American countries and regions.
Maritime trade has always been Tianjin's forte. It has remained strong for over a hundred years.
According to the 2023 annual report of Tianjin Port Co., Ltd., Tianjin Port completed a cargo throughput of 445 million tons. Among them, the container throughput of Tianjin Port was 20.02 million TEUs (twenty - foot equivalent units), ranking second in northern China (after Qingdao's 30 million TEUs), sixth in the country, and eighth in the world.
Tianjin Port, a world - class port, still shines brightly. It is not only large and important, being an important modern comprehensive port in China. Since 2019, relying on cutting - edge technology, Tianjin Port has unlocked new - quality productivity and built the world's first smart zero - carbon terminal.
According to the front - line report of CCTV on October 2nd, there was not a single person seen working at the Tianjin Port terminal.
One could see artificial intelligence transport robots equipped with lidar, millimeter - wave radar, and edge - computing modules. One could also see L4 - level autonomous driving delivering containers to designated locations. Behind this is an intelligent driving system with vehicle - road - cloud - network coordination, integrating 5G, Beidou, and high - precision mapping technologies, using AI algorithms to achieve the optimal overall scheduling effect.
This is truly remarkable.
Although Tianjin's economic data has been a bit sluggish in recent years, and it was overtaken by Nanjing in 2020, falling out of the top ten in the GDP list, it cannot be denied that the beginning of modern Chinese history is closely related to this city.
It is no exaggeration to say that in the Beijing - Tianjin - Hebei region, Tianjin is like the big brother in the family, having nurtured the cities and industries in almost half of Hebei.
The Story of Tianjin's Opening as a Port
In ancient times, Tianjin was established as a garrison for military defense and prospered due to the grain - shipping canal. In 1860 (the tenth year of Emperor Xianfeng in the Qing Dynasty), after the signing of the Treaties of Beijing between China and Britain and between China and France, Tianjin was forced to open as a commercial port.
In 1861, when the General Administration of Foreign Affairs was officially established, Chonghou was appointed as the Minister for Trade of the Three Ports, responsible for handling trade affairs at the three ports of Tianjin, Niuzhuang (now Yingkou City, Liaoning Province), and Dengzhou (now Yantai City, Shandong Province).
As the birthplace of modern industry in China, Tianjin began to rise.
Shortly after the appointment of the Minister for Trade of the Three Ports, British officers were hired to train a new - style army. Training the new army required firearms and cannons. In 1866 (the fifth year of Emperor Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty), the construction of the Tianjin Machine Bureau began, imitating Western countries to set up factories to manufacture new - style firearms and warships. The next year, a gunpowder factory, commonly known as the "Eastern Bureau", was established on Jiajiagu Road, nine kilometers east of Tianjin City, to produce gunpowder. In 1868 (the seventh year of Emperor Tongzhi), a firearms factory, called the "Western Machine Bureau", was built outside Nanguan at Haiguang Temple.
These two bureaus became important representatives of the Westernization Movement in the north.
Even today, some old Tianjin residents still call them the "Eastern Bureau" and the "Western Bureau". The port, shipyards, and military factories led to the establishment of factories such as docks, timber yards, engine factories, wrought - iron factories, wrought - copper factories, casting factories, pattern - making factories, boiler factories, and firearms inspection factories. The increase in population also led to the prosperity of civilian industries.
A List of the Establishment Years of Factories in Tianjin City from the Late Qing Dynasty to the Early Republic of China
A large amount of trade gathered at the port. Foreign goods imported through the customs and industrial products and agricultural and sideline products from various domestic ports were continuously transported to the hinterland. By the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, the total value of goods transported to the hinterland from the Tianjin Port using the transit duty certificates (a type of customs duty certificate at that time) (about 37.38 million customs taels in 1913) accounted for 43.4% of the total value of goods transported to the hinterland that year.
On the other hand, with the expansion of international market demand and the development of the city, goods from the interior were also continuously transported to the port. Some were industrial raw materials supplied to large industries at home and abroad, and some were consumer goods needed by the world market and urban and rural residents in China.
In 1914, the total value of goods transported to Tianjin from various places was more than 56.52 million customs taels. In 1917, it increased to more than 75.89 million customs taels. In 1919, it exceeded 100 million customs taels, and in 1921, it reached more than 131 million customs taels. Although the total export value still had a significant gap compared with the total value of goods transported from Tianjin to the hinterland, the growth rate was fast.
In the seven - year period after 1914, the total value of goods transported from Tianjin to the hinterland increased by 91.07%, while the total value of goods transported from the hinterland to Tianjin increased by 131.78%. This shows that the outbreak of World War I seems to have significantly improved the industrial production capacity in China's interior through Tianjin.
Driven by Tianjin, the self - sufficient household handicrafts in northern China gradually began to transition to modern rural industries producing for the market, and large - scale machine industries began to emerge in the inland areas of North China.
The Big Brother Status
In the past, when talking about the entire Beijing - Tianjin - Hebei region, many people thought that Beijing was the central city in the Bohai Rim area.
This understanding is not wrong, but it may be one - sided.
In fact, due to different historical positions, for over a hundred years, Tianjin has been the central city that leads, supports, expands, and nurtures the economic and social development of the entire Beijing - Tianjin - Hebei region.
Tianjin not only directly contributed to the formation of Tangshan and Qinhuangdao but also initiated the modernization of northern China with numerous "firsts".
In 1877, Li Hongzhang presided over the erection of a telegraph line from the Tianjin Machine Bureau to the office of the Viceroy of Beiyang (near today's Jin'gang Bridge). This was also China's first telegraph line. In 1878, the Tianjin Customs issued China's first set of "Great Dragon Stamps" with a coiling dragon pattern and the words "Great Qing Post Office". Modern postal service in China was born in Tianjin.
The appearance of urban lighting and water supply projects in Tianjin was earlier than in Beijing.
After Yuan Shikai succeeded as the Governor - General of Zhili and the Viceroy of Beiyang, he also took the lead in implementing Western municipal management systems in Tianjin, renovating the appearance of the old urban area, and promoting the modern police system.
Tianjin's first tram line was opened in 1906, almost in step with the world. By 1927, Tianjin already had seven tram lines. Beijing's first tram line was opened in 1924, and by 1929, Beijing had only opened six tram lines.
Tianjin and Hebei Join Hands for Maritime Development
Half of China's large cargo ports are in the north, while most of the large container ports are in the south. This is, of course, closely related to the port layout and the industrial structure of the hinterland they serve.
Tianjin Port has a strong radiation capacity inland. It is currently the main outlet for Beijing and the Xiongan New Area, radiating to the northeast, north, and northwest, and even farther inland hinterlands, covering almost half of China. The development of the hinterland economy and Tianjin support each other.
Along the more than 600 - kilometer coastline on the west side of the Bohai Sea, there are many large - scale ports such as Tianjin Port, Tangshan Port, Qinhuangdao Port, Caofeidian Port, and Huanghua Port. Through the inner feeder lines in the Bohai Rim, Tianjin Port drives the continuous increase in the throughput of the entire Bohai port cluster. These ports are like a string of bright pearls, with clear division of labor and mutual cooperation.
Tianjin's ports and Hebei's ports have also formed an organic interaction. Different ports develop in a differentiated way. Tianjin undertakes the most container handling tasks, while the influence of bulk cargo transportation in Tangshan Port, Qinhuangdao Port, etc., is increasing.
In 2023, the cargo throughput of Hebei's ports exceeded 1.3 billion tons. Taking Tangshan Port as an example, the total throughput of the Jingtang Port Area of Tangshan Port in 2023 was about 300 million tons, one - third of which was coal. 107 million tons of coal transported by the Datong - Qinhuangdao Railway was loaded onto ships at the Jingtang Port Area and transported to the south.
Shijiazhuang Customs announced in January this year that in 2023, the total import and export value of the Beijing - Tianjin - Hebei region exceeded 5 trillion yuan, accounting for 12% of the country's total import and export value. Among the ports in Tianjin and Hebei, the export of products such as integrated circuits and lithium - ion batteries has increased rapidly, and the import of goods such as cars and airplanes ranks among the top in the country. Parallel - imported cars account for more than 80% of the country's total.
This confidence comes from the cooperation between Tianjin Port and the port cluster in Hebei in recent years.
In May last year, Tianjin Port Group and Hebei Port Group reached the "Cooperation Agreement on the World - Class Port Alliance between Tianjin and Hebei", taking port services and land - sea linkage to a deeper level.
In December last year, the ports in Tianjin and Hebei signed the "Strategic Cooperation Agreement on Deepening Joint Learning and Construction, Building a World - Class Port Cluster in Tianjin and Hebei, and Promoting the In - depth and Solid Development of the Coordinated Development of Beijing - Tianjin - Hebei".
As early as 2008, an analysis article mentioned that under the conditions of a market economy, competition and mutual influence among ports, especially those adjacent or close to each other, are inevitable. However, through this competition and mutual restraint, these ports can form a "cooperative competition" within the port cluster, and the overall benefits of the port cluster will have the characteristic of 1 + 1>2. The ports of Hamburg and Bremen in Germany are such examples.
Tianjin is like the big brother in the family, having experienced hardships and seen the world. Against the backdrop of the "Belt and Road Initiative", it is now ready to lead its brothers to play a good game in building a world - class port cluster.
This article is from the WeChat public account "Zhengjieju". Author: Zhengjieju. Republished by 36Kr with permission.