Tianjin

Tianjin (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 was founded during the Sui dynasty at the northern end of the Grand Canal and became a major trading centre. The Treaty of Tianjin at the conclusion of the Second Opium War in 1858 opened the ciyt 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 rumours that French missionaries were kidnapping and killing Chinese orphans led to the Tianjin Massacre, in which the main Ctholic church and monastery were destroyed and priests, nuns and converts killed.