Tianjin

Tianjin (Chinese: 天津; Hanyu pinyin: Tiānjīn; Wade-Giles: Tientsin) is a major port city and municipality of northern China; it is the port for Beijing. The population of the municipality is 10.2 million and of Tianjin city proper, 5.6 million. Tianjin is a direct controlled municipality, meaning that the Chinese Central Government directly governs it.

Tianjin was founded during the Sui Dynasty at the northern end of the Grand Canal and became a major trading center. The Treaty of Tianjin at the conclusion of the Second Opium War in 1858 opened the city to foreign trade and residence, and a number of quasi-colonial foreign concessions were established by the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Germany, Austria-Hungary, the United States, Russia and Japan. In 1870 rumors that French missionaries were kidnapping and killing Chinese orphans led to the Tianjin Massacre, in which the main Catholic church and monastery were destroyed and priests, nuns and converts killed. Tianjin was occupied by Boxer forces during the 1900 Boxer Rebellion, and suffered great destruction. It was occupied by Japan between 1937 and 1945, and in 1949 was occupied by the Communist-led Chinese People's Liberation Army.

There was a massive explosion at the Tianjin port in Mid-August 2015. It claimed the lives of over 100 people and was thought to be caused by inadequate Chinese safety standards, relating to the safe storage of hazardous materials.