"The place where the emperor crossed the river"

Took a 30-minute high-speed train ride to the nearby city of Tianjin, which gets its name from the phrase "the place where the emperor crossed the river." Tianjin is significant for two reasons. First, after the Second Opium War, the municipality served as a major port for foreign trade and allowed the Brits, French, Japanese, Russians, and German to set up concessions. Like Shanghai, the city has plenty of European architecture from the early 20th century. The second reason Tianjin is important is because it's my mama's hometown. She lived in the British concession, but unfortunately not many of the residences remain.