Tianjin kept nine foreign concessions between 1860 and 1945 — more than any other Chinese city — while its walled Ming garrison town survived alongside them. Three days trace both layers: Confucian halls and river temples, then banking houses, warlord villas and an emperor in exile.
Founded 1436 and doubled in 1846 with a rare second 'new temple' next door, this is the largest surviving Ming–Qing timber complex in the city. Two Dacheng halls, Qing stelae and painted paifang arches. Open 09:00–16:30, closed Mondays.
The Ming garrison town of 1404 was laid out as a rectangle; its walls were demolished in 1901 after the Boxer siege, leaving only this central drum tower, rebuilt in 2001 on the original 1493 foundations. Exhibition on the vanished city inside.
Built in 1326 under the Yuan for sailors on the grain-tribute route, this is one of China's three great Mazu temples and the oldest structure in Tianjin — the city grew around it, not the reverse. Now also the Folk Culture Museum.
A 1427 Ming Daoist pavilion on the west bank of the Haihe, the tallest wooden building of old Tianjin and the traditional spot for the Double Ninth climbing festival. Only the Qingxu Pavilion survives of the original compound.
Its permanent gallery 'Tianjin in 100 Years' covers 1860–1949: concession treaties, the 1870 massacre, the Boxer occupation and the eight-nation provisional government that ran the city until 1902. Free with passport, reserve online first.
A 97-metre steel bascule bridge built 1927 by the French concession to link the station with the banking quarter; its opening machinery still works and is demonstrated on some summer nights. Renamed after the PLA crossed it in January 1949.
The last Qing emperor lived in this Japanese-concession villa from 1929 to 1931, plotting his return before leaving for Manchukuo. Rooms are restored to the period with his billiard table, tennis court and Wanrong's quarters. 70 Anshan Dao.
A kilometre of pre-war banking architecture in the former British and French concessions: HSBC, Yokohama Specie Bank, Citibank and the 1926 Chartered Bank, most in granite neoclassical dress. Exteriors only, floodlit after dark.
Built 1907 by Cantonese merchants, with a domed theatre hall spanned without a single pillar — the finest surviving guild theatre in north China. Sun Yat-sen spoke from this stage in 1912; Mei Lanfang performed on it.
Completed 1916 by French Vincentians in Romanesque revival brick with three green copper domes, built after the older Wanghailou church was destroyed. It became the flashpoint of the 1916 Laoxikai incident against French land seizures.
The 1898 reformer fled here after the Hundred Days' Reform failed; in the Italianate study he named the 'Ice-Drinker's Studio' he wrote much of the work that shaped Republican thought. Two restored buildings, 44–46 Minzu Lu.
Rebuilt twice on the site of the 1870 Tianjin Massacre, where rumours about an orphanage led to the killing of the French consul and ten nuns — a crisis that reshaped Qing foreign policy. The 1904 grey-brick Gothic shell stands by the river.