ABSTRACT
Tianjin is a large, industrial city in northern China (see Figure 2.1). It sits on the coast where the Hai River flows into the Bohai Gulf 130 km south-east of Beijing. There are records from the twelfth century of a settlement on the banks of the Hai River.1 This settlement, then called Zhiguzhai, became a transport centre during the Yuan dynasty (1280-1368) when the Chinese capital was established at ‘Dadu’, present-day Beijing. Zhiguzhai was a natural gateway to the capital because of its proximity to both the sea and the grand canal that brought grain from the south.2 By the early fifteenth century the name Tianjin was in use, and the settlement had become a walled city and military base from which the Ming dynasty capital was protected. In the eighteenth century the settlement grew rapidly and became an important centre for commerce, finance and salt distribution.3
