city and province-level shi (municipality), northern China. It is located to the east of Hebei province, at the northeastern extremity of the North China Plain. After Shanghai and Beijing, it is the third largest municipality of China. It is also the most important manufacturing centre and the leading port of North China.

Central Tianjin (the municipality's urban core) lies about 75 miles (120 km) southeast of central Beijing and about 35 miles inland from the Bo Hai (Gulf of Chihli), a shallow inlet of the Yellow Sea. Tianjin municipality, like Beijing and Shanghai, is under direct control of the State Council.

Tianjin (meaning literally “Heavenly Ford”) has been an important transport and trading centre since the Yuan (Mongol) dynasty (1206–1368). It was famous as a cosmopolitan centre long before the arrival of the European trading community in the 19th century. Its maritime orientation and its role as the commercial gateway to Beijing fostered the growth of an ethnically diverse and commercially innovative population. The city is noted for its woven handicraft products, terra-cotta figurines, hand-painted woodblock prints, and extensive seafood cuisine. Area Tianjin municipality, 4,540 square miles (11,760 square km). Pop. (2002 est.) city, 4,993,106; (2005 est.) Tianjin municipality, 10,240,000.

Central Tianjin is located where the Ziya and Yongding rivers and the north and south sections of the Grand Canal (Bei 【North】 Yunhe and Nan 【South】 Yunhe, respectively) meet before merging into the Hai River (Hai River system), which then flows eastward to the Bo Hai. The city stands at an elevation less than 15 feet (5 metres) above sea level on a flat alluvial plain. Some low-lying areas east of the city are only about 6 feet above sea level, and the majority of the built-up area is below 12 feet.

The municipality borders on the Bo Hai to the east, Beijing municipality to the northwest, and Hebei province to the north, west, and south. Between 1958 and 1967 Tianjin was a subprovince-level city, which served as the capital of Hebei province. Its jurisdiction extended over the built-up urban core and eastward along the Hai River to include the port at Tanggu. At that time, Tianjin city was administratively separate from the Tianjin Special District, which had its seat at Yangliuqing, southwest of central Tianjin.

In 1967 Tianjin municipality was made a first-order, province-level administrative unit, and the area under its immediate control was expanded to include counties (xian) formerly under the special district. The city simultaneously became the special district seat but lost its position as provincial capital. In the middle 2000s Tianjin municipality was composed of 15 urban and suburban districts (qu) and 3 rural counties. The municipality was under direct jurisdiction of the central government in Beijing.

Despite Tianjin's proximity to the sea, it has a distinctly continental climate with sharp daily and seasonal temperature fluctuations. It is subject to the full effects of the cool, dry Siberian high-pressure system during the winter (October to April), while in the summer (May to September) the high pressure system over the North Pacific Ocean brings hot and rainy weather. Winter precipitation is minimal, and the air is dry, with relative humidity averaging 50 percent. In summer, moist rain-bearing southerly winds prevail, and the average relative humidity exceeds 70 percent. The average annual temperature is 56 °F (13 °C), with a January average of 25 °F (−4 °C) and a July average of 81 °F (27 °C). Severe winter storms are common, but typhoons seldom occur.

The Hai River was long subject to frequent flooding. As the main outlet for the rivers of the North China Plain, it frequently became heavily silted during the spring and summer months; during the winter season its water level was often too low for navigation. Extensive water conservation began in 1897. The river was straightened to facilitate tidal action and to shorten the distance to the sea. Locks were constructed to regulate the flow of water from the river into its many canals, the river and the sand bars at its mouth were dredged, and silt-laden water was diverted into settling basins.

Since 1949 multipurpose flood-control, irrigation, and navigation improvements have been made. Construction of the Guanting Reservoir on the Yongding River near Beijing has helped alleviate flood damage within metropolitan Tianjin. New diversion channels have also been built to control the floodwaters of the Daqing and Ziya rivers to the southwest.

The marshy lakes and floodplains around Tianjin abound with numerous varieties of reeds, bulrushes, and shrubs, such as tamarisk. Closer to the seashore, Russian thistle, glasswort, and artemisia can be found. Freshwater fish (including silver and golden carp) are raised in ponds and marshy depressions.

The urban core of Tianjin extends for about seven miles from east to west and about nine miles from north to south. Heping, the central district, is located on the west bank of the Hai River, just below the large bend of the Hai. It is the main commercial and financial centre, and its two main streets of Heping Lu (Heping Road) and Jiefang Lu have large department stores, restaurants, and hotels.

The old “Chinese” city is situated immediately to the northwest of Heping Lu. It is bounded by the four wide boulevards of Dong, Xi, Bei, and Nan Malu that follow the course of the old rectangular wall. The street pattern in the old city is winding and irregular, in contrast to the more regular gridded pattern in the foreign-developed zones to the south and west. The old city is subdivided into four smaller sections, each of which in traditional times had special marketing and commercial functions.

North and west of the old city and continuing across the Nan Yunhe is the mixed residential and industrial Hongqiao district. It extends to the confluence of the Ziya River, Bei Yunhe, and Nan Yunhe. The northern outskirts contain workers' housing developments, and the area is best known for its domestic handicrafts.

The southern and western neighbourhoods of Hexi and the Nankai district were built on what (until it was drained) was marshy, low-lying land. Nankai district in the west and southwest is given primarily to residential and recreational use. Nankai is also a major university and research centre. Hexi neighbourhood to the south is now one of the major industrial districts, with more than 120 large and medium-sized enterprises located there.

The eastern districts of Hebei and Hedong, east of the Hai River, centre on industry and transport. Hebei has a few technical and vocational educational institutions in addition to its residential quarters, while Hedong is mainly industrial.

The provision of housing for Tianjin's workforce has been a major concern of the municipal authorities. The emphasis since 1949 has been on suburban development, although residential areas in the urban core have also been rehabilitated. Major new residential and commercial construction was undertaken in the early 1980s in central Tianjin as a result of damage incurred in the Tangshan earthquake of 1976. Before World War II many of the suburban residential areas were built on marshy, poorly drained land subject to flooding, and sanitary conditions were especially bad. Most of the modern complexes have been constructed near industrial zones on the outskirts of the city.

Many of the large commercial and administrative buildings in the central city were built by foreign concessionaires. They are typical of European and Japanese colonial architecture of the 1920s and 1930s, with buildings of contrasting architectural styles juxtaposed helter-skelter, without any plan. Some of the public buildings dating from the 1950s were built in imitation of the Soviet monolithic style, and housing complexes are usually standard multistory rectangular blocks. More recent commercial and residential construction follows modern design, with individual balconies and multicoloured facades.

The majority of the population lives in the central city, where densities are probably in the range of 15,000 to 75,000 persons per square mile (6,000 to 29,000 persons per square km).

Before 1949 most people were engaged in commercial or service occupations. Since then the occupational structure of the city has changed, and about half the population is employed by industry and only about one-fifth in commerce. The remainder are employed primarily in public services.

Ethnic minorities constitute a small proportion of the population; the largest groups are Tungans (Hui), Koreans, Manchu, and Mongolians. Most of them live in the central city in areas that have special historical associations. The largest single community of Tungans is in the northern suburb of Tianmucun.

Since 1949 heavy industry has been developed and the existing industrial base consolidated for greater productivity. Major activities are the production of heavy machinery, chemicals, and iron and steel and shipbuilding and repair. The heavy-machine-building plant in the city is one of China's largest manufacturers of mining equipment. Other products include machinery for textile mills and agriculture, machine tools, electrical equipment, bicycles, tractors, elevators, precision instruments, trucks, and watches.

The chemical complexes at Dagu, Tanggu, and Hangu (north of Tanggu on the rail line to Tangshan) produce agricultural fertilizers and pesticides, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and petrochemical products, plastics, artificial fibres, dyestuffs, and paints. The Yongli (now Tianjin) alkali products plant at Tanggu accounts for much of China's total output of purified soda, some of which is exported to Japan.

Textiles are the chief light industry. Other such products include processed foods, hides, rubber goods, and paper. Since the 1980s dozens of the world's top companies have invested in Tianjin, following the city's adoption of economic reform policies.

Financial services include branches of the Bank of China, the Agricultural Bank of China, The People's Insurance Company of China, and other banks. Retail and wholesale trade is managed by commerce bureaus that are responsible to municipal and provincial authorities. Pricing and personnel matters are managed locally, while the distribution of commodities, long-range planning, and high-level financial management are handled by provincial-level bureaus responsible to Beijing. A municipality-run General Trade Corporation formed in the early 1980s helps coordinate and improve the efficiency of domestic and foreign trade by assuming functions previously performed by central government agencies.

Tianjin is North China's leading transport centre. The Jing-Hu (former Jin-Pu) railway runs south from Beijing to Shanghai via Jinan, Shandong province, and Xuzhou, Jiangsu province. The Jing-Shan railway runs north from Beijing through Tianjin and Shanhaiguan on the Hebei-Liaoning border to Shenyang, Liaoning province. The lines are served in Tianjin by three railway stations, classification yards, and extensive maintenance and repair facilities.

Heavily traversed inland waterways radiate to the south and southwest along the Grand Canal and Ziya and Daqing rivers; they connect the city with Baoding, Cangzhou, and Hengshui in southern Hebei province. The Jing-Jin-Tang expressway from Beijing through Tianjin to Tanggu is the main all-weather freight road to the sea. Other main roads extend southward along the Jing-Hu railway into Shandong province, westward to Shanxi province, and northward to Qinhuangdao, northeastern Hebei, and the Northeast (formerly Manchuria).

Intraurban and suburban transport is extensive. Several dozen intraurban trolley, electric trolleybus, and motor bus routes connect the city's light railway and subway stations and serve the near suburban districts. The first 7.5 miles (12 km) of Central Tianjin's subway line was in operation by mid-1983 and had been extended to 16 miles (26 km) by 2006; three more lines are under construction. In addition, about two dozen long-distance motor bus routes connect the urban core with more distant rural areas.

Tianjin is the main collection point and transshipment centre in North China for goods manufactured for export and is the chief port of entry for heavy machinery and other capital-intensive imports. Much of China's total foreign trade by value is handled through Tianjin's outport and fishing port of Tanggu.

The Tianjin People's Congress is the city's chief administrative body. Its predecessor, the Municipal Revolutionary Committee, was established in 1967 during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966–69). Prior to 1967, responsibility for the management of the city's affairs was shared by a number of bureaus under both party and governmental control.

The Tianjin Municipal Planning Commission plays a key role in managing industry and commerce. It controls the supply and distribution of industrial raw materials, sets production levels, allocates funds for capital investments, determines manpower needs, supervises product research and development, and coordinates transportation, public works, and environmental policy.

Major public works projects since 1949 helped alleviate chronic flood damage and improved the city's water supply and sewage disposal systems. Marshy, low-lying lands were drained and converted to agricultural and recreational use, new roads were constructed, and streetlights were installed.

The supply of fresh water has always been a problem because of the city's location near the sea at low elevation. Severe water shortages developed in the early 1980s because of industrialization, population growth, and drought that cut off the water supply from Miyun Reservoir northeast of Beijing. These shortages were temporarily alleviated by diverting water from the Huang He (Yellow River), to the south, but construction was also undertaken to divert water from the Luan River, to the northeast. The project began in late 1981, and its initial stage was completed in late 1983. Swampy lowlands to the southwest have been drained; one of the most extensive was converted into the large recreational area of the Shuishang Gongyuan (Park on the Water).

Electricity is generated by thermal power plants (fueled with coal), and the city is connected by a power grid with Beijing and Tangshan, Hebei province.

Tianjin has many Western-style and Chinese hospitals, with separate facilities for children, workers, and members of ethnic minorities. During the Cultural Revolution,Tianjin also developed one of China's earliest and most effective urban planned birth programs. In 1971 an Office of Planned Births was established by the municipality and was granted status and authority equal to the Department of Public Health.

Before the Cultural Revolution about one-sixth of Tianjin's population was enrolled in educational institutions. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, enrollments fell. By the late 1970s, to support China's modernization program, considerable investments had been made to improve and expand scientific and technical institutions, especially those supportive of petrochemical, iron and steel, and marine services and engineering industries. The general universities of Nankai and Tianjin are located in Nankai district, on the southwestern periphery of the city. Other higher educational institutions include the Polytechnic University, the University of Technology, the Academy of Fine Arts, the Conservatory of Music, a medical university, a normal university, and other colleges and universities. Work-study schools attached to factories supplement formal educational programs.

The city has several museums and a major library. The Fine Arts Museum is noted for its collection of Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasty paintings, while the City Museum of History and the Tianjin Science Hall have more contemporary displays. The Tianjin Library is the municipality's largest library.

Special exhibits are held at the Industrial Exhibition Hall and the National Minorities' Cultural Palace, and the People's Festival Hall is used for operas, plays, and concerts. The largest movie house is the Peace Cinema. There is also an astronomical observatory.

There are several dozen parks and recreation centres. Victory Park and the Children's Park are in the centre of the city, and the Xigu, Nankai, People's, Changhong, Shuishang, and Beining parks are in the urbanized area. Recreational clubs have been built for industrial workers, and there are several stadiums—including the Tianjin Olympic Center Stadium, built to host preliminary football (soccer) matches during the 2008 Olympic Games.

The marshy, poorly drained area surrounding contemporary Tianjin was sparsely populated until the Song dynasty (960–1126), when the settlement of Sanchakou was built on the west bank of the Hai River. The original settlement was later joined by the larger town of Zhigu, built on high ground at the confluence of the Ziya and Hai rivers. Zhigu grew rapidly as a port and commercial centre, and it became the chief storage, transfer, and distribution point for grain and other foodstuffs from central and southern China.

In recognition of the importance of Zhigu (then called Haijin) as a shipping centre, the Yuan (Mongol) government (1206–1368) established offices for the regulation of navigation and customs and expanded the town's warehouse and harbour facilities. The city also became a major salt producer when salterns were constructed along the Hai River.

The development of modern Tianjin began during the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), when the national capital was shifted from Nanjing to Beijing. In 1404 the settlement became a garrison town and was named Tianjinwei (“Defense of the Heavenly Ford”). A large military base was built and a rectangular wall constructed at that time. The town prospered as it became the main gateway to Beijing, and its population was swelled by immigrants from Shandong, Jiangsu, and Fujian provinces.

By the beginning of the Qing (Manchu (Qing dynasty)) dynasty (1644–1911/12), Tianjin had become the leading economic centre of North China because of its location at the northern terminus of the Grand Canal (Da Yunhe). As better inland waterway connections were established, there was a steady increase in the city's volume of trade. Members of the first Dutch diplomatic mission to China in the mid-17th century commented favourably on the well-constructed 25-foot- (7.6-metre-) high wall surrounding the city and noted the many temples and the large commercial and marketing area.

Economic prosperity declined temporarily during the mid-19th century when the European nations trading with China unremittingly pressed their demands for commercial and diplomatic privileges. The treaties of Tianjin (Tientsin), during the second Opium War (Opium Wars) (1856–60) against China, were signed by the British, French, and Chinese in 1858. They authorized, among other provisions, the establishment of British and French concessions in Tianjin. Between 1895 and 1902, concessions were given to Japan, Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, Italy, and Belgium. Hostilities were resumed in Tianjin in 1860, and the city was shelled by the British and French; the Convention of Beijing then declared Tianjin an open trading port. Ten years later, a violent expression of Chinese antiforeign feeling erupted in the city when the French Catholic orphanage and cathedral were attacked. In 1900, renewed antiforeign demonstrations led to the shelling and occupation of the city by Allied (Western) forces and the destruction of the old city wall.

By the end of the 19th century, Tianjin had grown to more than 200,000 people, with about half the population residing within the old “Chinese” city. Living conditions for the Chinese were in sharp contrast to those in the spacious, well-tended European quarters that were distributed to the southeast and along the riverbanks.

Tianjin became an important ocean shipping centre by 1900. The Huang He shifted its course, and the Grand Canal became silted up in the early 1850s, thereby restricting inland waterway traffic through the city, and shipping operations were shifted eastward along the banks of the Hai River. Facilities were also built at Dagu and Tanggu at the mouth of the Hai.

Under the Republic of China (1911–49), Tianjin became a special municipality (shi) under the direct administration of the Nationalist government. In 1935 the Japanese attempted to extend their control over North China by establishing an autonomous area in eastern Hebei province, which was to be administered by Japanese military authorities in Tianjin. A year later they presented demands to the Chinese authorities that were designed to weaken Chinese control over the area. With the onset of the Sino-Japanese War (1937–45), the Japanese occupied Tianjin, and in 1939 they blockaded the British and French concessions in response to anti-Japanese demonstrations.

During the civil war period in China (1945–49), Tianjin remained under Nationalist control until mid-January 1949, when the city was captured by the communists. Since then, Tianjin's growth as a trading and manufacturing centre has been responsive to internal development needs. Despite its proximity to Beijing, the city retains a distinctive character, attributable to its functional and utilitarian origins. Tianjin was one of several cities outside Beijing selected to host events for the 2008 Olympic Games.