By staff reporter SYLVIA

The Millennium Clock, a roadside sculpture built to celebrate the new century.

Tianjin has a subtle charm that is perhaps obscured by the nearby capital, Beijing, just 120 km away.

It has few skyscrapers, its buildings mainly low and close together. Residents thus live in close but comfortable proximity. Neighbors trust and support one another, and any disagreements that occur are so unavoidably public, they simply add more color to the fabric of daily life.

Tianjin does not, either, have many straight, wide roads. Its thoroughfares generally outline the exterior walls of residential neighborhoods before zigzagging off into a green vista.

Its relatively slow development and absence of a transient population have enabled Tianjin to preserve its northern agricultural civilization. It is one of the few large cities where setting off firecrackers is allowed on holidays and festivals. At Spring Festival, when people from other cities take tours to other parts of China or even overseas, the home-loving people of Tianjin celebrate in the traditional way by holding family reunions, and decorating their houses with New Year pictures or papercuts. Tianjin people are very conscious of etiquette and rituals, particularly those relating to funerals and weddings. To outsiders this may seem incongruous in such a modern city.

The Seafront Tower, a church built by the French Catholic Church in 1869.

People in Tianjin have simple tastes. Local residents care little for national TV programs and broadsheet newspapers. All the information they need is in the local newspaper -- Jin Wan Bao (Evening News). At noon, when citizens generally take a break, everyone in view -- street vendors, shoppers, and taxi drivers -- bury their heads in the Jin Wan Bao. Tianjin's mass media is less developed than in other cities of a similar size and scale, so its people take a greater interest in the more localized items found in the Evening News.

Tianjin citizens retain their inherent characteristics of straightforwardness and unsophisticatedness. They are talkative, warm-hearted, and sincere. If you should take a taxi in Tianjin, the driver will immediately make you his friend. If you are from another city he will, in the local vernacular, tell you all about the local scenery, folklore and customs. You may respond or simply listen. Either way he will carry on his commentary until you reach your destination.

Women are generally considered the barometer of fashion in a city, like plants that bloom in celebration of the four seasons. Tianjin women are not, however, overly fashion conscious, but their qualities are much appreciated by their men. They are good housekeepers and considerate wives, but by no means mild or timid. The innate candour of the Tianjin people is plain to see in them, particularly in family matters.

Colored clay figurines of the Zhang Family are still popular today.

The men of Tianjin are noted for their wit, humor, and capacity for satire, able to maintain a line of repartee, deadpan, while friends and observers split their sides. Jokes widely told across China often originate in Tianjin, and the city is also famous for the performance art of xiangsheng, or crosstalk.

Tianjin most resembles a modern metropolis at night, when its busy streets are illuminated by neon lights, and its nightclubs, bars and restaurants heave. Then there are its many teahouses, where quyi -- the folk performance art consisting of ballad singing and comic dialogues, including crosstalk -- may be enjoyed. Tianjin is home to quyi, and the city has produced many quyi masters, such as celebrated crosstalker Ma Sanli and ballad singer Luo Yusheng. Ma Sanli once performed at the Yanle Teahouse at 66 Rongji Street, Heping District.

Teahouses in Tianjin generally look a little run-down. Admission is about six yuan, inclusive of a bottomless cup of tea. They are permeated with the smell of tea, tangerine peel and smoke, and resound with cracking nutshells, pouring and drinking of tea, and chatter. Such sights and scenes are rare in other large cities.

A Yangliuqing New Year picture - Ladies on a Spring Outing.

Tianjin's history is short by Chinese standards -- a mere 600 years. It used to be a military fortress, and in peacetime became an agricultural town. Its military men thus became farmers. Tianjin's economy remained agricultural for over 200 years until the 1860s, when the city was made a treaty port after China's defeat by the British-French allied forces. It later developed a navigation economy and became a trading center in northern China, to which merchants from across the country travelled.

The last emperor of the Qing Dynasty, Aisin-gioro Pu Yi, took shelter in its foreign concessions on the downfall of the Qing Dynasty. That particular period of history left Tianjin a legacy of 1,000 or so houses in Western style, built a few dozen to a hundred years ago. They are located mainly on Chengdu, Chongqing, Changde, Dali, Munan and Machang roads, and are in British, French, German, Russian and Italian architectural styles. These houses also served as residences to the deposed imperial family and nobility of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the president and high-ranking officials of the Northern Warlords Period (1912-1927), as well as rich merchants and social celebrities. Today these areas are the quietest places in the city, best seen at dusk, when their walls are tinged scarlet by the glow of sunset.

Tourist Attractions: Yangliuqing New Year Pictures: This art originated during the Ming Dynasty in the 1,000-year-old town of Yangliuqing in Tianjin's western suburbs. The Yangliuqing Museum is located in the Shi Family Mansion, one of Tianjin's eight most famous households of the late Qing Dynasty, and the city's largest and best-preserved ancient residences. The museum has a rich collection of folk arts and exhibits, such as Yangliuqing New Year pictures and an account of their history, brick carvings, and folklore artifacts. The mansion itself is a museum exhibit. Ancient Cultural Street: Located in the northeastern corner of the old city (in present-day Nankai District), this Qing-style street extends for 580 meters, with the Heavenly Queen's Palace at its center. It is lined with shops dealing in old and ancient books, antiques, traditional arts and handicrafts, and folklore crafts. Celebrated ancient purveyors of Tianjin arts such as Yangliuqing New Year pictures, colored clay figurines of the Zhang Family, Wei Family kites, and Liu Family seals, had shops on this street. It bears similarity to Beijing's Liulichang, and is a popular place for local citizens to take a walk during the Spring Festival. Xikai Cathedral: Also known as the French Cathedral, this building is on Binjiang Road in Heping District. It is 45 meters tall and is both a cathedral, built in 1914 and a church, built three years later. It covers an area of 1,585 square meters. Xikai Cathedral is the largest church in Tianjin and has been recently refurbished. Mount Pan: This is the best-known scenic area in Tianjin and features tranquil gullies, grotesquely-shaped rocks, fragrant pines, clear springs, verdant woods, and ancient temples and pagodas. Recommended places to visit are the Tiancheng (Heavenly City) Temple, the Wansong (Ten Thousand Pines) Temple, the Yunzhao (Cloud Shrouded) Temple, the Wanfo (Ten Thousand Buddha) Cave, and the Guayue (Hanging Moon) Peak. Transportation: Take a bus to Xinglong from the long-distance bus station in the northeastern corner of the city proper, and get off at Jixian County. Tianjin Snacks: Erdouyan (ear hole) deep-fried glutinous rice flour cake, Goubuli (dogs ignore) steamed stuffed bun, and Guifaxiang deep-fried dough twists are the three famous Tianjin snacks. The Guifaxiang Shibajie Dough Twist Main Shop at 566 Dagu South Road in Hexi District has its shop on the street with a kitchen at the rear. Fresh, deep-fried dough twists can be bought here. Nanshi Food Street, where there are over 100 shops trading in delicacies from across the country, is also a recommended gastronomic wander. As regards the culinary, Tianjin is best known for its baked corn flour biscuits and stewed small fish. This is made by first molding a mixture of corn flour and warm water into palm-size biscuits, and sticking them to the inner side of a wok to bake, then deep-frying Crucian carps, removing them to a pot when they turn brown, and adding water, scallions, ginger, garlic, aniseed, cooking sherry, vinegar, soy source, sugar and salt. The mixture is stewed until the fish is tender, then sprinkled with sesame oil and served. The biscuits and stewed fish go deliciously together. Shopping Hints: Pingshan Road is the place to go for cheap, quality garments that have been wholesaled from Guangzhou. Unusual styles and reasonable prices make these garments very popular. Shenyang Road is site of one of the country's three largest antique markets, where all the folklore arts of Tianjin are available. Care should be taken, however, when actually making a purchase.