Tianjin tat

A public holiday today, so we stayed on in Tianjin and explored a bit. There are still pockets of European Concession architecture, like the 1860s Astor Hotel here, a long street lined with imposing, columned British, French, Japanese, Russian etc banks, and some fine 1930s houses in another part. And yet, and yet... it was all a bit sterile. Possibly because it was a public holiday, but then you'd expect more people out & about? Worse was Ancient Culture Street which turned out to be Brand New Tat Street: a soulless, gentrified, cobbled quarter of tacky tourist trash. Depressing. So that's Tianjin ticked off, as we whistled home on the intercity train at 300kph.  
PS. Talking of tat, there's going to be a huge Chinese-US film production complex built on the edge of Tianjin called - wait for it - Chinawood.