My mother and I travelled to her hometown, Tianjin from August 17th to 20th 2013. Tianjin is one of the four municipalities in China. I had been there to visit relatives with my mother and grandparents. This time I went there with my mother for a trip.
We first went to Five Old Streets, the most famous sightseeing streets in the center of Tianjin. Five Old Streets was British Concession after the invasion of the Eight-power Allied Forces. It is called an exotic building cluster in Tianjin. Sitting on the travelling carriage, I watched different kinds of small villas around the streets and listened to the tour guide telling the stories about the villas. My mother told me that she grew up in Five Old Streets and loves being there. I couldn’t help imagining how my mother played thereas well as braiding her hair as a child.
 

My mother told me that Tianjin is home to many gourmets, so I read relevant books before going to Tianjin. I knew there were four famous snacks in Tianjin-Goubuli Stuffed bun, Erduoyan fried rice cake, Guifaxiang twist of dough and Xiaobao chestnuts. We ate dumplings in the famous Baijiaoyuan. We could see the whole process of making dumplings because the staff made dumplings in a big transparent glass house. When waiting, I counted the dumplings on the menu and found there were one hundred kinds of stuffing for dumplings. We tasted seven of them-pork with shrimp and chives, pork with haricot bean, beef with carrots, egg with fennel, pork with preserved vegetables, fresh Spanish mackerel and squilla. The beef with carrots and squilla were my favorite, more delicious than the dumplings my grandfather made.

My mother also took me to Kissling Restaurant, the earliest western restaurant in Tianjin. We tasted the potato salad. It was really tasty. My mother said that the taste was the same with the one she ate as a child.

I went to many other places. I watched how to paint with sugars and how to make clay figurines in Ancient Culture Street. I enjoyed comic dialogue in old drama stage. I visited Yangliuqing Museum. Iexperienced aquatic sports in manor. I enjoyed the night view along Haihe River on a pleasure boat.
Tianjin is beautiful and interesting. I love my mother’s hometown!