Italian Concession Area, Nankai & C-92

This is a big exploring week for me!

On Tuesday I decided to check out the Italian Concession Area in Nankai, Tainjin (a 40ish minute lightrail ride). The Concession Areas are leftover from the Opium War; they're areas that other countries kept control of so they were, theoretically, heavily influenced by these other cultures. That turned out to be a bit of a bust. There wasn't really a big central area of Italian anything and there wasn't much old art or architecture left. The one area that was clearly supposed to be the focus was completely new, only half built and only vaguely Italian in architecture.

 After check that I just wandered the city.

These kinds of alleys are my favorite to check out. They always make for good adventure.

I really, really wanted to go up to the top of the bridge, but apparently that is not allowed. Boo.

Abacus art!

There are random Eiffel Towers on top on tons of buildings in Nankai; I've seen at least 7.

This came out pretty dark, but it is an alley in a book market! Very cool.

Today I set out to see the one other thing I've been wanting to explore in Nankai, the C-92 Arts District. I was completely expecting something similar to 798 in Beijing, but on a smaller scale. Not so much. C-92 was at maybe 25% occupancy, but it was more of a place for arts businesses to office, like photography studios, ad agencies, etc. as opposed to galleries and vendors with public art. It did seem like it would be a cool place to work and there was a little bit of public art and a coffee shop and a bar, but overall not much to check out. Sad panda.

Ah well. Still good times, and tomorrow I head back to Beijing for adventures with a friend from Phoenix!